Pusillanimous progressive punditry

One official progressive talking point in response to John Boehner playing their politicians like a violin is that Republicans are "bullies" and "hostage takers" (see here and here for examples).

Pundits, please!

Nobody gave Obama an atomic wedgie in the boy's bathroom. Nobody has any Democratic politician's family members locked up somewhere. It's simply that a majority of this country's elected representatives disagree with you on policy.

That's it; that's all.

Now, you may be right and they may be wrong about the policy, but it didn't take physical violence or blackmail to get the policy to turn out the way it did. A lot of people just plain disagree with you on policy.

Last time I checked, that was still allowed 'round here.