[dragonwriter]

> When Obama rode somewhat roughshod with them, people were okay with them.

Accuracy of the characterization aside, no they weren't.

> They didn't complain.

Yes, they did. All the time. Even sued to overturn a number of them, in some cases successfully.

> It reminds me of the dissonance in some Calexiters --the same people who mourned Brexit. It's only good when you do it.

More accurately, people think content matters (for legislation or executive orders), not just the style of action, and context matters (for exiting a larger union).

[mc32]

You'll have to kindly point me to all the execs writing "op-eds" about those times Obama issued executive orders, because I don't recall any.

It has not been uncommon for past presidents, incl. Obama, to issue immigration bans or pauses for certain groups of people. You can argue the immediacy or the reasoning, but the results to travelers were similar.

[skuhn]

No, they were not similar.

Obama did not ever ban hundreds of thousands of valid green card or visa holders from re-entering the country where they currently reside full time. Which has also -- effectively -- made those still in the US subject to an exit visa.

As a result, he also did not sow mass chaos by springing a poorly communicated status change on people in the air coming to a country that had already provided them with documents for entry.

[Manishearth]

See also: https://twitter.com/courtneymilan/status/825393465995456517

Most EOs in the past (incl Obama's) have been about relaxing laws, not inventing new restrictions.

[skuhn]

I think it is worth specifically calling out one of the main points of the Twitter post you linked: people who are upset about Trump's executive order on immigration were not necessarily fine with everything Obama ever did.

If it meant we could get Trump out tomorrow, I would gladly vote for Obama a third time. Still, Obama did a number of things while in office that I strongly disagreed with -- and a lot of things that I strongly agreed with. It turns out that life is complicated.

[jacobolus]

Averaged across 2 terms, Obama issued the fewest executive orders of any US President since Grover Cleveland. (Assuming I didn’t miscount; data here http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php)

[refurb]

That's a bit of an oversimplification, no?

The number of EOs don't matter. What's in them matters.