Wife and I were talking about how we felt at this moment

[bigtree]

...when Kate McKinnon performed Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" a couple days after Trump was elected:

"I did my best; it wasn’t much.
I couldn’t feel, so I learned to touch.
I told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you And even though it all went wrong,
I’ll stand before the Lord of song
With nothing on my lips but Hallelujah!"

It's incredibly triggering, but it reminds us of just how far we've come since that awful moment, and how important and vital it is that we have the same resolve today that we mustered back then to push through to the next election and put Trump on his ass.

“It really felt like the perfect distillation of what we wanted to say,” SNL wrier Sarah Schneider told Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, the directors of the upcoming documentary Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song (in theaters July 1 and inspired by this book of mine). They sent the verse to McKinnon—who, though she described “Hallelujah” as “the most beautiful song ever written, one of my top three songs of all time my whole life,” also wasn’t familiar with these lines, and actually asked if Schneider had written them for the Hillary character. Still, they worried that at this moment of such raw emotion for the country, the song would feel “too sad, too defeated.”

We were both rallied by the performance. It was a moment of unity. A few days later the Women's March on Washington was announced for the day after Trump's inauguration - which my son and I attended even though I had the flu and had to work that night. I still look back to this performance as the moment we looked up from that devastating defeat and began to fight again.

Funny sweet story. That night when the networks announced he'd won I had to immediately go to work stocking shelves on the grocery night crew. We were a 24-hour store, and I saw an elderly lady come in to shop looking much the same way I felt.

She said she was in to find some comfort food. We commiserated with each other about the election, and I suggested, as I always do, that she get something familiar that she likes instead of something new.

On the way out she stopped by where I was working and gave me a candy bar she'd bought. Said she didn't eat candy but she thought it would make me feel better.

I thanked her, stopped working and ate it, and I did feel better.

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. I literally cried during that song.

To this day, I always think of that moment when I hear Hallelujah.

[bsiebs]

2. I was numb when she performed on SNL that night... just seeing that image or hearing that song brings it all back to me.

How bad it felt... how I knew that something terrible was about to take off (and it certainly did that).

We can never get back to that place... GOTV.

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. It was absolutely perfect for that moment.

SNL was good that night.

[bsiebs]

4. You are correct... it was a flawless delivery of the absolutely right song by the perfect performer...

... and it broke my heart that night.

[greatauntoftriplets]

8. It was a terrible time.

I don't want a rerun in November.

[Blue Dawn]

5. I cried, too.

I was so moved by her singing.

[greatauntoftriplets]

7. Yeah, it was one of those moments.

She's a good singer.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

6. It was like being at a funeral

[Lonestarblue]

9. That performance breaks my heart even today.

It breaks my heart that we could have had an excellent president, and the world and our country would be in far better shape today. I have no doubt that many thousands of US citizens would be alive today because Hillary would have taken the pandemic seriously and reacted to save lives, which Trump did not. And we most likely would not be facing the nightmare we face today with the possibility of another Trump term because he would not have had the opportunity to build his MAGA cult and to turn the Republican Party into the destructive organization it is today. We would still have Roe as law because she would have appointed sane, experienced judges to the SC. We are suffering a country on the brink because Trump gained the power to now try to overturn democracy itself.

[Papaw Buck]

10. Trip to Ireland on that day

The wife and I were on our 40th anniversary trip on that day when TFG was elected. The whole bus tour group were down upon hearing the news that morning. Our bus driver and tour guide Mert was very sympathetic and he worked to lighten the mood.
He had a lady friend who lived here in the states and he had to console her overnight. When I got back home it felt like a different country. A scary place because there were enough here to vote such a traitor into office.. I'm still concerned .

[barbtries]

11. made me cry.

i was utterly distraught. we cannot back there. oh noooo

[Martin Eden]

12. McKinnon's rendition was perfect for the moment

Definitely struck an emotional chord.

[herding cats]

13. I wept tears of loss and grief.

I still cry when I watch the video. What could have been vs what has become... it's hard even to this day to process it all.

It's good to remind us of then, and how it felt. It, at least in my case, makes me ll the more determined to fight with every fiber of my being to not let that happen again.

[et tu]

14. no encore, please nt

[PatrickforB]

15. Boy, that sure brought some tears.

We should have had Gore in 2000 and Clinton in 2016.

If we didn't have the Electoral College, we would have.

[Oopsie Daisy]

16. Horrified. And it never left me.

I'm still in shock that it happened. I won't get over it. I'm still angry at all the saboteurs who helped it to happen: Jane Sanders (encouraging people to vote 3rd party "as long as they voted, that's all that mattered") and Susan Sarandon (telling everyone that a Trump presidency would bring about "the revolution" sooner), and Nina Turner, and Cornel West, and Bree [whatever her name is] and everyone who did their utmost to discourage turnout. I'll never forget and I'll forgive them. Never.

[redqueen]

17. I remember the shock I felt when he won.

It was surreal. Like the first seconds after a crash or a bad accident. A moment of confusion. Disorientation. Then slowly a stunned acceptance as you go on autopilot. Just going through the motions while you struggle to make sense of what just happened.

I don't, however, remember that performance.

[Whatthe_Firetruck]

18. Cohen wrote 80 verses to that song so that every one...

... Could find something from among them they wanted to say.

My favorite cover of this song is by Pentatonix, an acapella band. Even though it shares two of the verses performed here, it manages to be hopeful and uplifting, not to mention heartrendingly beautiful.

?si=Ht53YxmwHumpwQki

[Hekate]

19. I loved Kate McKinnon singing that -- I cried, kept going back on YouTube, & cried every time

She perfectly expressed our collective grief and yearning, in that moment.