Profiles in Democratic Party Courage

I don't like Daily Kos, but I visit because there's information there and a perspective on a certain kind of Democrat, so it's a finger on the pulse of "Blue" America.
Lately, I've noticed a trend that deserves a quick comment. After the last debate, there was a post lauding Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro, and buried amid the mild plaudits was the satisfaction that he was "not afraid to call [Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro] a dictator." Well, calling Maduro a dictator should be embarrassing because it is so wrong. He was fairly elected, does not enjoy many of the perks of autocratic rule, and faces circumstances in Venezuela created by a hostile foreign power and a (mostly unmolested) fifth column in Caracas that would have led Barack Obama to suspend the constitution completely if they happened here.But that's beside the point for now. The point is, what courage! Castro has only about 100% of the foreign policy establishment, 99.99% of the mainstream media and 95% of the Democratic Party behind him on that bullshit. What is he afraid of? A Venezuelan hit squad putting him down as number 768 on its kill list?
Today, I got an email from "Amy." It looked more like some kind of political garbage than a virus, and sure enough, I was being asked to stand with Amy Klobushar, who "isn't afraid" to call out Trump on his unpopular trade policies. Again, I wonder, "afraid?" Of what?
I realized after this came up how familiar this was all getting, and I'm sure I would be able to find (or will soon receive) more examples of this particular strain of American political "courage" of standing up and saying something extremely popular. Was Castro the first to misidentify Maduro as a dictator? Was Klobuchar the first to notice Trump is an idiot on trade? Here you have two Democratic hopefuls (right word? 1-percent-pollers have little cause to be hopeful) being lauded for the courage and integrity it must have taken to stand up after having a finger in the wind for a year or two and waiting for a consensus to form with at least a hundred million backers before finally committing.
Someone start polishing the medals. If this is the standard for courage, we are going to have a lot of them to pass out.