I love election nights. It is the only night where I can stare at a news network (or a few networks) for an entire night. Throw in Twitter and messaging with some friends and it is a regular party. Yesterday, I ended up going to a movie with my girlfriend. I wanted to get out of it but I promised to take her. So, not wanting go back on my word, I took her to the movie. We saw Girl on the Train. I will review the movie later (it sucked, by the way).

When I went into the theater, I was completely expecting a Clinton win. I did not expect Trump to get more than 170 to 180 electoral votes. She was down by twenty electoral votes but the important states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Michigan) were not in. All of the states that had already been decided were not surprises. So his early lead was not shocking. I was going to be out of the loop for a little over two hours because I turned off my phone. If my girlfriend caught be looking up election results during her movie, she would have killed me (literally, I saw the knife) (OK, I know. That last comment was from Old School but it was funny)..

Now, a little about myself from a political standpoint. I am neither a democrat nor republican. I am a constitutional libertarian. I know, I know: what the hell is that? What it means is I believe in personal freedom as long as it does not infringe on the personal freedom of others or causes issues within society. I lean toward the conservative side on social issues but rarely see everything as a black/white issue. As a constitutionalist (spell check does not like that word but I know it means something), I believe in the constitution from a literal sense. The only thing the federal government should do is raise an army, protect the borders and solve interstate disputes. Nothing else. Everything else should be decided by the states. With that being said, I think you probably can figure out who I voted for though I am not a big fan of him.

Anyway, I got out of the theater after the movie and saw what was happening in the election. Trump was already over 200 electoral votes. I told my girlfriend, who hates politics and did not vote, that Trump was winning and winning big (she did not care. She hates Trump). I gave her a kiss and a hug then flew home.

I live with four Egyptians. Devout Muslims and all very political. I thought I would sneak past them so as not to insult them when I became giddy about the results. Jimmie (no, that is not his real name, but no one American can pronounce his real name) saw me walk in. He had a huge smile on his face and a “I Voted!” sticker on his chest.

“Can you believe this?” he exclaimed. Apparently, he is a Trump supporter and was thrilled with the apparent upset.

Happy to see I could be social during the election, I sat and watched the news with him a Nagda, his wife (she was also a huge Trump fanand I can pronounce her name). They were watching Egyptian television. I could not understand a thing anyone was saying but I got the idea. Apparently, the folks in Egypt are big Trump supporters too (Jimmie explained why. That might be another blog post). He was determined to stay up until Trump got to 270. My friends, all of whom were Trump supporters, were texting my like teenage girls, excited about the prospects. All day, we had been hearing how Trump would never get over 170 electoral votes. Now he stood at 254 and was winning in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

At 11:15, the Egyptian news program declared the Trump took Pennsylvania and won the election. Jimmie grabbed some apple cider (they do not drink alcohol) and Nagda made everyone hamburgers and french fries (she loves to cook). I went upstairs to see if CNN and Fox News had also called the election. Both stations said it was just too close to call.

At 12:15 AM, Fox News declared Trump had won Pennsylvania and the presidency. I watched John Podesta’s speech, telling the crying Clinton supporters to go home (I was a little shocked about that). I started to watch the Trump speech but went to bed after I heard him call for unity.

It was really an exciting night. Probably one of the most exciting nights in the history of presidential elections and I have seen a few now. I am pretty confident I know what is an exciting election.

Pictures courtesy of:
latimes.com
gstatic.com
cbsnews.com
begoodnow.com
cnn.com