One of the first things you learn when you become an electoral activist is that no election is ever “final.” Win or lose, there’s always another one coming. The 2012 campaign began when the polls closed on Tuesday. And there is every reason to think that future elections won’t be as brutal as this one has been.

The Right has oversold this election. They’ve been telling their followers that, on November 2, “the American people” — traditionalist white Christians, like themselves — are taking the country back from … those who aren’t really Americans. But, of course, that won’t really happen. The tea-baggers’ number-one “reform” — repealing the health care law — is the one thing that they can’t have. And as for the Republicans actually reducing government spending … when have they ever? Government is not going to shrink because of what happened this week. The Right will go into the next election-cycle nursing a deep sense of disappointment.

Those of us who want to grow the government still have every reason to expect to prevail. Most important, the social and cultural changes moving in our favor will not stop, nor even slow. The non-white majority is still coming, and the rising groups are likely to take a less “worshipful” attitude toward the ideology of the F–ing Fathers. Traditional American beliefs, which had a strongly Christian cast, will be further undercut by increasing religious tolerance. The traditional family is still dissolving, and people will need things from the government that their ancestors got — or didn’t — from their families and communities. The working and middle classes are still losing out economically.

In short, the pressure for more entitlement, regulation, and redistribution will not let up.

Next time around, the tea-baggers will not have the “enthusiasm gap” on their side; their disappointment with the Republicans will be just too strong. There will almost certainly be a bloody confrontation between extreme and moderate Republicans over the choice of presidential candidate. Nor will they benefit from the tendency of “marginal” constituencies — young people, minorities, the poor — to skip off-year elections.

And that’s even before we factor in the anger and resentment people will be feeling toward the Right — especially if they try something really stupid. (Remember the government shutdown? The Clinton impeachment?)

So get ready for 2012 to be our year.