To be a Democrat is not the same as to be a “democrat.”

To be a Democrat means belonging to a party ruled by mood-swings and slogans: “I’m with her,” “Yes we can,” and “Me, too.”

To be a democrat means trusting the power of the people, but understanding that the power of the people is restrained by law, custom and due process.

A majority cannot vote to rape Joan or to rob John.  A majority -- in Congress or on campus -- cannot silence Jill or Jim, because it really hates them or what they’re saying.

To be a democrat demands maturity and emotional intelligence. It means knowing that not all problems quickly meet perfect solutions. A democrat understands less-than-perfect compromises must be made.

To be a Democrat means demanding the tools of power the way a child demands toys, then  throwing a tantrum when the toy arrives late or not at all.

Worse,  being a Democrat means to destroy the “toy” if it has to be shared with someone else. It does not matter if it’s the Presidency, the Senate, or the Supreme Court: “It’s mine, and you can’t have it!”

If it’s the presidency, “we’ll impeach it.” If it’s the Senate, “we’ll hound it.”  If it’s the Supreme Court, “we’ll  pack it.” If it’s voter base, “we’ll replace it.” (By illegal immigration.)

To be a democrat (small d) means to understand the limits of power, while to be a Democrat means seeking power by all means, to talk high while going low.

“Our motto is when they go low, we go high,” observed Michelle Obama at the last Democratic National Convention. That was only a few years after her Barack’s senate campaign managed to exploit particularly lowball tactics -- intimate documents released about both his primary rival and his general election rival.

Low tactics are now the Democrats’ favorite tradition: Democrats systematically create unsubstantiated sexual allegations (like Senator Dianne Feinstein against Judge Brett Kavanaugh) or financial accusations (like Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid claiming Mitt Romney was a tax cheat).

After the lie is discovered, Democrats have a particular skill in showing no shame, no embarrassment, no blushing, particularly if the lie worked.

“They can call it whatever they want,” said a smiling Reid, after he was caught lying about Romney’s taxes. “Romney didn’t win, did he?” Getting the job for your guy and denying the job to their guy is the only test.

When Democrats get in trouble, first, they stall and evade investigation. Then they bury, shred, hammer and burn the evidence (not necessarily in that order), even if the evidence is under subpoena.

The story of the security failures that led to the murder of four Americans in Libya, including the U.S. ambassador, was covered up the Obama administration, just as it concealed the full extent of the security breaches in the use and misuse of Hillary Clinton’s emails. The FBI and State Department were so helpful.

We have had similar sagas in the cases of House Democrats’ computers penetrated by a Pakistani technician, Senator Feinstein’s in-house Chinese spy, former National Security advisor Sandy Berger stealing documents, or CIA director John Deutch, guilty of keeping classified material on his home computer. All were swept under the Democrat carpet of plea deals or pardons.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Barack Obama have urged Democrats “to get into the faces” of political opponents. What a surprise: Democrat gangs have hounded, harassed and even assaulted Republican senators, representatives and cabinet members.  Sometimes worse: a backer of Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders tried to murder several Republican Congressional representatives while they were playing baseball on June 17 last year.

The attacker, James Hodgkinson, was a volunteer in the presidential campaign of Senator Sanders.  Bernie’s supporter shot and nearly killed Rep. Steve Scalise, the GOP deputy congressional leader. Scalise’s life was saved, along with others, by police who killed the Sanders volunteer.

“I am sickened by this despicable act,” said Sanders. He and other Democrats were “sickened” only briefly. They quickly recovered.

Sanders, Obama, and Hillary Clinton constantly urge backers to “resist.” It is an interesting choice of words. “To resist” is usually reserved for fighting dictators like Castro in Cuba or Chavez in Venezuela or totalitarian rulers like Saddam Hussein, Stalin, or Hitler.

“I am part of the Resistance,” declared Clinton even before Donald Trump, put his hand on a bible to swear to protect the law of the land. Trump won by law, but he triumphed over the predictions and hopes of the Democrats.

Real democrats would have acknowledged the Trump victory. Reeling Democrats could not.

This means politics played according to Coach Vince Lombardi’s dictum, without any other rules or referee: “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”

This is exactly what Obama’s alter-ego, ex-attorney general Eric Holder, meant when at a Democrat campaign stop in Georgia, he publicly redacted Michelle Obama’s high-sounding “we go high” remarks.  “No, no,” said Holder, ‘when they go low, we kick ‘em.”

It is time for all Americans who are democrats to take a page from Abraham Lincoln, the first great Republican, who lost patience with dithering generals who avoided a showdown with the South and its Democratic backers during America’s first Civil War. Lincoln knew he had to fight, and he needed to find a fighting general.

America -- not just Trump -- is in a different kind of civil war. It needs a fighting general, perhaps a fighting attorney general, who will apply the full legal options against “The Resistance.”

It is time for democrats of every party (or no party) to fight back against the Democrats.

Dr. Michael Widlanski is the author of Battle for Our Minds: Western Elites and the Terror Threat. He served as a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis in 2007-8 and at the University of California, Irvine in 2014.