summer soldier

plural summer soldiers

1. A person who fights for a cause only when to do so is easy and costs little.

   We want to assure you, however, that we are not summer soldiers, and we know that you are not a summer soldier. The fight for human rights, for freedom ... will go on.

   1986 March 5, Kenneth J. Bialkin, Remarks at a White House Briefing

   1 more example

   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.

   1776 December 23, Thomas Paine, The American Crisis