2004When people said "9/11 changed everything", they were right. President Goldwater's War on Terror charged the political landscape, with the advent of the "national security voter". Goldwater's fiscal conservatism, hawkish foreign policy, and social liberalism created a foil in the populist campaign of Mr. Joseph Mormdem, a former Utah Representative who rallied a strange coalition of doves, labor, and Southerners to win the Democratic nomination. With Mormdem being smeared as an anti-Israel, anti-security isolationist, Goldwater was able to make gains in the North and even take New York in what pollsters called the "9/11 bump". While he won re-election, his chances were threatened by a successful campaign by Mormdem to bring in traditionally Republican voters in the South and West. Election gimmicks such as Goldwater's proposal to legalize gay marriage and Mormdem's claim that he would seek to overturn Roe v. Wade were able to shift social issues voters from their typical parties, radically changing the electoral map.
