You might think that defunding an operation to stop it was the purview of the Congress--not really.

The effect of the IRS stalling on conservative group applications for tax-exempt status was to defund activists on the right. While Tea Party and other conservative groups were wasting valuable resources on trying to get applications approved, they were unable to raise contributions because such contributions would not be tax deductible.  More importantly, think about what they were not doing.

They were not:

•  Running TV Ads
•  Running radio ads
•  Holding public seminars
•  Holding fundraisers
•  Traveling to give speeches at sympathetic venues
•  Sending mailers
•  Making brochures
•  Making bumper stickers
•  Setting up booths at county fairs and trade shows

These things all take money to do on a large scale.  There were almost 500 companies subjected to this treatment.  That is a lot of influence that was not exercised.  The Democratic party was caught flat-footed in the 2010 midterm elections and they set out to defund the Tea Party. They were successful.

We don't know how many more votes would have been cast for Romney if these people had not been hobbled.  But we conservatives shouldn't be feeling sorry for ourselves.  Romney's loss was our fault.

Conservative principles plus the obvious damage that Obama and his machine were doing should have been enough motivation for us.  We shouldn't need someone waving in our face, but maybe we do.  The truth is, we didn't show up.  If as many of us had voted for Romney as voted for McCain, Romney would have won.

I believe in my heart that the last presidential election was the most fraudulent ever.  Every old dirty trick and many new ones were brought to bear on our dreams.  It is clear that early voting, election day registration, voucher systems, unmonitored "poll watchers" and absentee balloting are all invitations to corruption.  That invitation was accepted and the Democrat machine came to the game ready to play.  We did not.

We on the right enabled this corruption and thereby Obama's second term.  There are enough of us to make things right if we have the will to simply show up and vote.  If we wait for someone else to do the job, that someone will be Obama.  How could we have failed to simply get up and go vote?  The Romneys couldn't believe it and neither could I.  But that was then and now we need to focus on the future.

It is critical at this point that we all realize that the same corrupt machine is firing on all cylinders with one goal in mind--getting back the House and keeping the Senate.  Mrs. Obama is doing up to three fundraisers a day, her husband is still in permanent campaign mode doing five to ten a week.  They are desperately scooping up cash before people begin to realize that the current scandals should be laid at his feet. The unions and all the usual suspects are registering voters as fast as they can and fighting voter ID.  The Big Data they have been collecting is in full use; only now it is focused on individual congressional races.

We are going to have to keep aware of the news of the day and motivate ourselves.  Any added motivation from the Tea Party and others is gravy, the commitment has to come from each of us. The 2014 mid terms are our only chance to contain the damage being done by this administration.  We must not lose seats. Have the people on the right forgotten how to fight?  Some haven't.  The organizations that valiantly fought the IRS for three years and did what they could without money haven't forgotten.  We may not all be as tough as them, but we must all vote.  Democrats are using Big Data to find possible voters and calling them multiple times before each election, we do not have the tools to do this. We must each commit to ourselves to vote.