What is the Stockholm Syndrome???

I had never heard of this phenomena until I read a very interesting article by Frank Rich  in the New York Times.  He references an article Understanding The Stockholm Syndrome found in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin.  He explains it as the way captives win over their hostages. They do it by "winning a victim’s loyalty if they temper their brutality with a bogus show of kindness. Soon enough, the hostage will start concentrating on his captors’ “good side” and develop psychological characteristics to please them — “dependency; lack of initiative; and an inability to act, decide or think.”"
 Rich uses this syndrome to explain President Obama's reaction to the Republicans and uses the example of the Republicans canceling the meeting with the President due to scheduling conflicts and then agreeing to come at a later date.  This way Obama could then look at their good side. 
In my mind this explains the President's behavior over the last two years.  He reaches out and gets slapped down and then they give him a nice word or two and then he gives them just what they want.  In other words bend over and I'll kick you in the rear again!  This is leading us into a very serious situation where nothing gets done and every bill gets watered down so that it is almost meaningless.
The other part of the problem is that the Democrats in the Senate at least don't have the backbone to stand up and fight and tell the President the truth.  They don't even have the backbone to fight for what is right.  The lame duck session is almost at an end and still nothing has been accomplished.  No repeal of Don't Ask, Don't tell, the tax cuts are not resolved, the budget needs to be addressed and the biggest of all is the extension of unemployment benefits.
Our government is at a standstill.  It is a very sad and deplorable situation.