Everywhere I turn, I hear Democrats asking the same question: Is it time for a liberal Tea Party?

I was asked a version of that question this week on MSNBC. I’ve seen that question in publication after publication. I understand the impulse. In retrospect it seems that Republican confusion and despair after Barack Obama’s decisive victory in 2008 lasted for a remarkably short time. It certainly seems that the Tea Party gave the Republicans a blueprint for defiance and ultimate triumph.

But I see things differently. As a conservative who once represented dozens of Tea Party organizations in court I’m here to answer that question with an emphatic no. A new Tea Party wouldn’t work for the Democrats the way it worked for Republicans, and more important, it would be terrible for the country. The Democrats would fight fire with fire, and we would all get burned.

The Tea Party was born toward the end of the first full month of Obama’s first term. On Feb. 19, 2009, a CNBC editor, Rick Santelli, went live on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade and delivered a rant against Obama’s mortgage bailout plan.

As the traders on the floor loudly egged him on, Santelli condemned the use of federal dollars to provide relief for people who couldn’t pay their mortgages. “This is America,” he said. “How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage that has an extra bathroom and they can’t pay their bills?” As the people around Santelli booed, he yelled, “President Obama, are you listening?”

The Tea Party was never a formal organization; it was a collection of organizations, of local clubs and grass-roots groups, from across the nation that had a common ethos and — this is key — attitude. And it’s the angry defiance of the Tea Party that Democrats most seek to emulate.

Senator Chuck Schumer’s decision last week not to filibuster a Republican continuing resolution is a perfect illustration of the contrast. We know from the Obama years that Tea Party conservatives were happy to shut down the government to try to coerce concessions from Obama — even if they had no hope of achieving their ultimate aim, repealing the Affordable Care Act.