The parallels between hockey and political decoding

I am a fan of the Knoxville Ice Bears, a professional hockey team that is part of the Southern Professional Hockey League. For the better part of two decades I have gone down to the Knoxville Civic Coliseum to cheer raucously for our local team, sticking with them through the many championship years and the rough seasons like the one just ended. The appeal is not just the hockey itself, but the ritual spectacle of promotions like Weiner Dog Races, Star Wars Night, or an “Eras” night with teen girls screaming every Taylor Swift lyric that blares over the public address system.

Other than the banner ads for politicians hanging on arena walls, there might not seem like an obvious connection to local politics. Look more closely, however, and some subtle similarities emerge. You can understand the game on simple levels (goals, wins, fights, penalties), but one key to watching hockey is anticipating where the puck goes next, what machinations are taking place away from the action, and how strategies are changing. 

Those matters of observational depth came into play earlier this year in Knoxville when five of our state lawmakers showed up for a legislative forum sponsored by the League of Women voters and the East Tennessee Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. One subtle change was that the state senator from the sixth district introduced herself as Becky Massey. That’s a change from previous election cycles when she was Becky Duncan Massey, being certain to use the Duncan name that links her to her brother and father who together represented this area in Congress for more than half a century.

One also notices a power play move by Massey whenever any issue arises. Like any politician she is for good things and against bad things, but when a matter is controversial, she defaults to process, talking instead about where the matter is in the legislative cycle and whether she is on the relevant committee. Massey earned some soft groans from the audience of about 50 when she said about private school vouchers, “In the past I have not voted for, I’ve not really voted against, but I’ve not voted for the voucher-related bills, but, um, you know, I always try to keep an open mind.” She then said that she would do Facebook items and surveys through her e-newsletter, plus gather information through conversations.

Three of the other panelists were former colleagues of mine on the Knox County Commission. I sat next to Democratic Rep. Sam McKenzie on commission; he for several years now has served House District 15.  During our commission days, Sam and I were across the dais from Republicans Dave Wright, now representative for House District 19, and Richard Briggs, now a senator.

Briggs and Wright authored the efforts that would have stopped Knoxville Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson from being on the ballot for both her current seat, and her U. S. Senate challenge to Marsha Blackburn. Briggs insisted at the forum that the effort was not prompted by Johnson but about the possibility of someone running for both Farragut Alderman and also mayor of that wealthy enclave. Sure it is. One is reminded of the old saying “I may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night.” 

No matter the sincerity of Briggs’ origin story of the effort, the extremist GOP supermajority slighting of the woman who quite rightly challenges their policies is obvious and has a long history — from the failed effort to expel her, to gerrymandering a long finger to move Gloria out of her district, to her office assignment in a closet.

If the anti-Gloria effort fails, and that now seems likely, the failure will not be because of a sincere change of understanding, but because of rural backlash against how the law could affect Republicans serving in multiple elected roles.

University of Tennessee sports fans may prefer football, basketball, or even baseball analogies for our current political environment. I argue, however, there’s a strong case to be made for minor-league hockey analogies to our state legislature. The play is rough, and rarely pretty. Momentum shifts are real, and crowd-pleasing antics can fill the intermissions with diversions. Ignore the dekes and fakes, and keep your eyes on where the puck goes next.