"love it or leave it"

[Jonathan Lighter]

You're right about the short form, Wilson.

I'm only showing that the phrase existed long before VN, FWIW, IYKWIM. YBQ
(that's four in a row) recommends a look at earlier but far less similar
words from Dorothy Parker & Gus Kahn.

Also FWIW, my recollection is that "America: Love it or Leave it" came on
the national scene only as late as 1969.  It was the same year that
conservatives hijacked the American flag for their exclusive bumper-sticker
use.

But I digress:

1930 Dr. L. H. Beeler, Grove City College, in _Simpsons' Leader-Times_
(Kittanning, Pa.) (Oct. 29) 1 (NewspaperArchive): Secretary Davis says there
are six million aliens in this country who do not want to become American
citizens. They come here for three reasons: to spread propoganda [sic], to
exploit America, and to encourage financial assistance. If this country is
not good enough for them to make it their home, they should be sent back to
stay forever. They are working destruction against our institutions and
dismembering our ideals and destroying America. The solution to this problem
is not difficult - love it or leave it - be loyal or disappear.

Beeler was also disturbed by kids at the movies who cheered antisocial acts
and by movies that "catered to sex, disloyalty, the broken home, or
bootlegging."

JL

On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 2:35 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "love it or leave it"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 11:27 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > YBQ has "America: Love it or Leave it" under "Political Slogans," dated
> to
> > the Vietnam years.
> >
> > That's when I first heard it.
>
> Yes, but I've always interpreted
>
> _leave it_
>
> as
>
> "go back where you came from" / "go to someplace that you like better"
> / "get TF OUT!"
>
> whereas
>
> "leave it alone"
>
> seems milder, much milder, as it travels the thought to your mind.
> More like, well, if it bothers you, then forget it. Sorry I asked.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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>



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