1980 was my first election. I was still a liberal skull full-o-mush back then but I was in the navy and we were told if we wanted a pay raise we better vote Reagan. Seeing the response from Iran to his election was a huge eye opener to me. It was during his second term that I really started to wake up from my liberal coma. Reagan, Rush and my father were the major influences on my early conservative development. Thankfully I've never looked back.
Trump is NO Reagan.
I'll do you one (or two) better than that. I voted for Carter in 76, because Ford pardoned Nixon. Between 77 and 80, I really grew up. I was in Germany for all but one month of the Carter Presidency. During 77 & 78, we basically shut down training because there was no money in the months of August & September.
In 78, I was a Platoon Leader for a Towed Vulcan platoon, and 3 of my 4 squad leaders were E-4's, "Acting Jacks." We needed every bit of training we could get. Good thing my platoon sergeant was good, because he ran the show during alerts. Our mission was airbase defense, and during the 4 day Air Force tac eval's , that was virtually uninterrupted training time. Not for me, though...I was down in the Wing Command Post as the Army Liasion Officer, as I was one of two officers in the battery with a TS clearance. The BC was the other, and he obviously had more important things to do.
Fast forward to 80, and I knew I couldn't vote for Carter. My German neighbors pleaded with me to vote for Carter, they were sure that Reagan would start WWIII. I loved these people, and the town I lived in was as much my home as it was theirs, as I had lived there nearly four years. I spoke their language, and put it in a way they eventually understood.
36 years later, I'd likely be sitting in a dark corner of the neighborhood gasthaus, lamenting over our current candidates.
The biggest influences on my development as a conservative? The Platoon Leaders Handbook and Once an Eagle (by Anton Myrer). "Everything your unit does, or fails to do, is your responsibility." That lesson was driven home during my first two years in Germany, as a Platoon Leader for three of my battery's four platoons.
My life philosophy is also augmented by 1 John 3:18: let us love not in word or speech, but in truth and action. I'm nowhere near where I need to be, but I aspire to that verse, i.e. "deeds not words."
