The Summer Soldier And The Sunshine Patriot
During the 1770's, as the American revolution developed, soldiers who joined the Continental Army during the spring or summer but went AWOL in the fall or winter were known as "summer soldiers".
Many of the "summer soldiers" were farmers who would join up with the Army when their crops were planted, fight during the summer, and then go back home in the fall to help with the harvest.
Others would stay with the Army through the harvest, but sneak off in the middle of the night once the weather got cold.
Meanwhile, the people who supported the revolutionaries when the revolution was going well -- but not otherwise -- were called "sunshine patriots".
So in the famous passage from "The Crisis" where Thomas Paine wrote:
The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their countryhe was talking -- quite literally in the former case -- about the fair-weather friends of the Revolution.
I recently had a Twitter dialogue with Hot Air's noted writer "Allahpundit over what I saw as his continued negativity to Donald Trump well after Trump was the putative nominee.
Allahpundit asked if I "never found any fault with Trump." That is of course not the matter at issue. I find fault with even Sarah Palin (there I've said it) as I side more with Trump's position on the GOP's need to rewrite the abortion plank. I am pro-life but even Palin makes one exception and I, like Trump would allow for two.
Of course no politician is perfect and there never has been one, Reagan included.
The bottom line, the absolute is, could any Republican of any stripe look at themselves in the mirror on November 9th with anything but shame and self-loathing if they had overtly assisted Hillary Clinton to have been elected as president, especially with a senate majority and supreme court appointments to commence?
I do not use the words "inadvertently" or "through inaction or neglect" because any action against Trump, any inaction or neglect when action and attention was possible, is exactly the same as overt assistance when the stakes are so high, in fact as high as they have ever been for the Republican cause.
Any such neglect or overt attacks on Trump with an eye to "having a real conservative elected in 2020 (not ascribing such thoughts to Allahpundit) is disgustingly self-serving and shortsighted. Further, since most presidents are reelected it is doubtful in the extreme, and the SC appointment/s are irreversible.
Further still, if the perpetrators of such fantasies believe they will have a united party behind their 2020 choice (presumably Cruz) after sabotaging the 2016 overwhelming choice of the primary voters they are deluded in the extreme.
I understand and appreciate that there are bitter feelings among some of the backers of the losing candidates especially among those who supported Senator Cruz. But continuing on yesterday's battle against the nominee is utterly nugatory and otiose and must, for the sake of America above all, now cease.
What possible purpose does it serve for Hot Air to continue to run negative articles about Trump, parse every negative poll, especially when as they well know polls at this point are discredited puppets of the media's agenda.
"I will not now or will never support or vote for Donald Trump." I still see this touted around conservative blogs and Tweets. In the absolute majority of cases when the day of the election approaches the people who made such emphatic statements will, whether they hold their noses or not, vote for the nominee.
This has been the case over and over as with the female "PUMA's who, after Hillary lost the nomination swore the would never vote for Obama which they did, and all the anti-Romney's who vowed the day would never dawn then they would vote for him, but vote they did.
Now if Allahpundit and ilk decide in the last week to write "as bad as Trump is Hillary is worse and I will vote for him" that's all well and good. But for people such as they who are in a position now to "bear any burden and fight any foe" and choose not to because of aggrievement they are "Summer soldiers" whose neglect of duty, when so many are fighting for the anti-Hillary cause is, purely and simply the worst form of enabling.
Win or lose in November, I and millions of others will be able to say we fought the good fight to the best of our abilities. For those of talent to neglect this duty, to attack the only weapon against ultra-liberalism available, and by doing so to enable the ascension to office of a corrupt leftist candidate is, frankly, shameful.
There is still time to look forwards, to do the right thing and to keep America safe. I ask those who have the special ability to make a valued, positive commitment to put the past behind them and commence the attack against the real enemy.
MJS
