Scott Walker, the recently defeated Republican governor of Wisconsin, has been under fire for trying to limit the powers of his successor, Democrat Tony Evers. He’s also catching heat for having no clue how a Venn diagram works.
Walker signed a series of bills on Friday cementing the changes to the governor’s power, including one limiting the governor’s role in rule-making, and giving power over an economic development board to legislators instead of Evers. The new laws also limit the power of the incoming attorney general Josh Kaul, restrict early voting, and prevent Evers and Kaul for withdrawing from a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act.
Walker tried to downplay the effects of these and other bills that he signed at a ceremony in Green Bay on Friday.
Armed with a huge poster with the offending diagram, Walker called the outcry over the legislative changes “hype and hysteria.”
The poster in question shows two circles side by side, which overlap a bit in the middle, much like an actual Venn diagram. But within each distinct circle, the same text describing the powers of the governor appears. The area where the two circles overlap, which should include a listing of the powers that remain the same from administration to administration, simply says, “BOTH ADMINISTRATIONS, SAME POWERS.”
Signed Senate Bills 883, 884, & 886 into law in Green Bay. Despite all the hype and hysteria out there, these bills do nothing to fundamentally diminish executive authority. The bottom line is the new gov. will cont. to be one of the most powerful chief executives in the country. pic.twitter.com/lBvfJt1ZzX
— Governor Walker (@GovWalker) December 14, 2018
Walker claimed in a tweet that even with the new bills, the governor of Wisconsin will still be “one of the most powerful chief executives in the country.”
While Twitter users were angry about Walker’s attempts to limit the power of incoming Democrats, they managed to find the time to make fun of his Venn diagram faux pas, too.
That’s not how a #venndiagram works. Next time reveiw this #vennDiagramTutorial:https://t.co/X3Vns6cfTU pic.twitter.com/UHZsEZIBuF
— Abdul-Basit Haqq (@AbdulBasitHaqq) December 15, 2018
.@ScottWalker, this is how a Venn Diagram works. pic.twitter.com/V8QOnMZEiB
— Wisconsin Democrats (@WisDems) December 14, 2018
Inspired by @ScottWalker‘s Venn diagram and @lainey_seyler‘s aggregation of responses on Twitter (https://t.co/K2nepvSeFm), I decided to hastily throw together a Bucks-Cavs preview Venn diagram for tonight’s game at 6:30 p.m. Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/QSovf1JfL3
— Matt Velazquez (@Matt_Velazquez) December 14, 2018
1: This isn’t how a Venn diagram works.
— JoCasta Zamarripa (@repjocasta) December 14, 2018
2: This isn’t how democracy works. pic.twitter.com/UbFjvuYR6q
— Aegon IV Targaryen, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms (@RealAegonIV) December 14, 2018
I can see why he wouldn’t do this in Madison, it being a university town and all. https://t.co/kUUelEuWIr via @journalsentinel
— Elizabeth Williamson (@NYTLiz) December 14, 2018
Walker is notorious for having gutted Wisconsin teachers’ unions in 2011. In this year’s elections, though, he called himself the “pro-education governor,” a title that, in light of the Venn diagram gaffe, seems unearned.
H/T BuzzFeed
