"love it or leave it"

[Jonathan Lighter]

After a number of prewar exx., NewspaperArchive shows a huge "Love it or
leave it" gap between 1941 and 1970.

JL

On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 3:04 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "love it or leave it"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> IN GIANT PRINT:
>
> "AMERICA!...LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT
>
> "If they don't like it here, why don't they leave?" [Etc., etc.]
>
>  --_Gettysburg Times_, July 16, 1940, p. 5 (NewspaperArchive)
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 2:58 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > 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
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org