Every Executive Order Since 1937

I am hearing more about Executive Orders right now than I have in my lifetime. Given, I am only 25 years old, so maybe this happens every time we get a new president. However, on the airwaves I listen to (mainly Reddit, Google, and what my fiance tells me) there is a lot more discourse and hate towards Executive Orders.

Yesterday, there was a protest on President's day about Trump. I went to observe becuase I've never seen a protest before. I saw many signs talking about Executive Orders. Most of the signs in some way shape or form talked about how they were unconsitutional. I'm no lawyer, so I can't comment. But is Trump special in his (ab)use of Executive Orders?

Trump Isn't Special

Donald Trump took office almost a month ago he signed 65 executive orders at the time of my writing this. This follows a pattern similiar to every single president before him. As soon as a new president takes office they usually sign a flurry of orders undoing the previous president's orders. He followed through with some of the promises he was making the entire time he was on the campaign trail. He even threw in a few more interesting ones such as an EO getting rid of plastic straw bans (lol).

The volume of Trump's Executive Orders pales in comparison to FDR and his 300+ orders in a single year. Most of FDR's orders came during America's involvement in WWII. I wonder if the same people I saw protesting Executive Orders yesterday would also protest FDR's 300+ executive orders.

Put simply, I think FDR was more justified in issuing his Executive Orders than Trump. My general idea is that during times of crisis, one individual needs to steer the ship and during times of peace democracy needs to reign. FDR understood that during war the government needs to move fast not slow.

I believe Trump is a master propagandist who has convinced the American populace that the issues we are facing today amount to a crisis. Once he has convinced Americans that we are at a crucible moment in history, then he can easily rule with an iron fist. I also believe that the issues that he is trying to solve (immigration, geopolitical instability, and the US economy) truly are issues but they aren't issues in the same vein as a World War taking the lives of American citizens.

This Reminds Me Of The Romans

A quick disclaimer: There was a meme going around last year about how Men think about Ancient Rome a lot. Yeah, it's kind of true. But I want to say that I liked Roman history before it was cool to like Roman history (shout out Mike Duncan). Anyways, when the Romans had their democracy many thousands of years ago they had a role in the government called 'Dictator' that would be elected in times of great need.

There wasn't always a dictator. Only when the senate of Rome agreed that the crisis that lay ahead of them was of such a high magnitude that the slowness of a democracy would only hinder efforts to overcome the crisis. They elected a dictator and essentialy gave the state to that person for a specified year. At the end of the year, that person could be elected as dictator again if the crisis was not resolved.

Cinncinatus was a Roman who was elected dictator during a war. He became famous in history not becuase he was dictator, but becuase he was able to give away his dictator powers after the crisis passed.

FDR like Cinncinatus was a dictator during WWII. Trump is trying and successfully spinning the current issues of today into a crisis that only a dictator can solve. But he isn't special in doing this.

Thanks for reading! This data comes from the Federal Register.