Democrats are defenders of democracy — except when they lose. Then they want to change the rules.

That’s what may happen in California. 

California Democratic Party chair Rusty Hicks has decided that the state’s odd primary system — the “top two” or “jungle” primary — does not work.

That’s odd, because it has been a huge boost to Democrats — until now.

Under the “jungle” system, the parties no longer hold separate primary elections. Instead, all of the candidates are pooled into a common primary. The top two finishers advance to the general election, regardless of party.

That means, in theory, that two Democrats could run against each other, or — more rarely — two Republicans, in the November election.

Republicans have not won a single statewide office since the “jungle” primary was introduced. 

So Democrats should be happy. 

But they’re not — and all it took to upset them was the mere prospect that two Republicans could qualify for the general election in the governor’s race.

Former Fox News contributor Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco aren’t exactly best buddies.

But the two of them have been — until recently — at the top of almost every poll in the governor’s race.

That’s because there have been so many prominent Democrats in the race that they have split the vote between them. 

Without a Democratic Party frontrunner, there is a chance that Democrats could be shut out of the general election, and that Hilton and Bianco would spend the next several months redefining the debate around conservative priorities.

You know, those extreme MAGA demands — like balancing the budget, lowering gas prices, creating jobs, building houses, removing homeless encampments, fixing out infrastructure, improving our schools, and fighting crime.

All Democrats want to do is talk about President Donald Trump — which is also why they are in a quandary. None of them is talking about policy, so they all sound the same.

Rusty Hicks blames the system — the same system that has been delivering easy wins to his party for a decade and a half. 

The same system that Adam Schiff gamed to win a Senate seat by promoting a Republican in the primary whom he could easily beat in the general.

Democrats like democracy when they win. If they lose, or even if they might lose, that’s a threat to democracy.

Change the system, if you want — but at least be honest about why you’re doing it.