The times that try men's souls

Written by Thomas Paine.

The key quote:

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

We've got a lot of "sunshine patriots".  I was thinking about that when I wrote about Limbaugh.  If you take pay for your service, you are a sunshine patriot.  What happens when the money is no longer there?

I heard that Limbaugh was leaving the country.  Was that true?  If so, how does this guy have any credibility at all?  The sunshine patriot will only love his country when the sun is shining.  If the country goes through a stormy time, the sunshine patriot will flee.  He is like the hired man that tends the flock who is the type Jesus talked about.  He will flee when the wolf shows up, for he cares nothing for the sheep.  Beware the sunshine patriot.  There are a lot of those these days.

Update:

The last sentence was linked to an example of sunshine patriotism and it wasn't referring to who you're thinking it is referring to.  The guy may deserve punishment, but his "punishment" only ennobles him because he was willing to lay it on the line, which so many here take as an example of punishment.  In other words, they've got it backwards.  In other words, Jesus Christ got what he deserved by this kind of thinking.