For once, I agree with the headlines: Election 2012 was the most important thing that happened this year.

The election of 2012 actually mattered. For headlines to accidentally coincide with anything that really matters is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

Don’t carry this too far. It is enough of a coincidence for the news to feature anything important. Needless to say, there is very little overlap between their reasons for putting it front and center and the real reason to do so.

In 2012 paycheck conservatives finally ran into the reality they have made a living by denying. Their biggest value to the establishment has been reciting their own mantra: “Whatever it is, it has nothing to do with race.”

The 2012 election made it clear that whatever the political process is, it has everything to do with race.

Paycheck conservatism is a corpse.

But even a corpse doesn’t give up easily.

Few will remember I said this, but in 2014 the paycheck conservative corpse will sit up in the morgue.

History makes it clear that the presidential party loses seats in both Houses in the next congressional election after a president is reelected.

Paycheck conservatives got lots of false hopes from 2010. They used it to argue that 2008 was a fluke.

In 2014 they will claim that the news of their death was greatly exaggerated.

Meanwhile, back On Planet Earth, the electorate in an off year election is simply different from that in a presidential year.

So in 2014 paycheck conservatives will get one more chance to say, “It has nothing to do with race.”

So paycheck conservatives will get one more chance to deny that demography is destiny.

Paycheck conservatism is a corpse, but it has one more chance to sit up.