I believe because it is absurd.
It’s a classic counterintuitive quote usually attributed to Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus — stage name Tertullian — a third-century Christian theologian from Carthage. The quote is not exactly precise; the Latin goes:
et mortuus est dei filius: [prorsus] credibile est, quia ineptum est.
et sepultus resurrexit: certum est, quia impossibile.
A common translation runs something like this:
“And the Son of God died; it is [utterly] credible, because it is unfitting [or absurd/silly/inept].
And he was buried and rose again; it is certain, because it is impossible.”
Put in plain terms, he believed because why in the flaming hootie-hoo would the Creator of the Universe and All Things Great and Small come to earth as a mere human? Who would make that up?
I live in a hard-blue city in a blue-ish purple state that’s become as big a symbol for Republican futility as it is for professional sports futility. The Minnesota GOP hasn’t won a race for Governor, Senator, Attorney General, Secretary of State or State Auditor in 20 years. The people that have been elected — Tim Walz and his Lieutenant Governor. The legislature is tied, and has been flipping around by single digit margins every election since 2015.
And given this state’s history, and President Trump’s unpopularity in this state (he’s got the approval numbers of an unsedated colonoscopy), the DFL should be able to count on sweeping the Senate and executive office races and flip the legislature with margins of dozens of votes.
I should not feel optimistic. It would be absurd.
And yet.
This is the state that “shocked the world” by electing Jesse Ventura as governor — granted, in a simpler time when the state was on top of the world and could afford to play a practical joke on itself.
To be a conservative in a place like the Twin Cities requires not just faith, not just belief in miracles, but a faith that the absurd can come true.
Because the absurdity has met us halfway. Tim Walz beclowned the whole state in his comically vapid vice presidential run. The fraud scandal has made the state a national laughingstock, and just keeps snowballing. The pre-election polling, which normally shows a hopeless row for Republicans to hoe, shows…promise. Maybe. Attorney General Keith Ellison is, improbably, less popular than Donald Trump in the state.
And while the state‘s GOP is a circular firing squad, most of the candidates have bypassed the party apparatus and run fairly excellent races. Extreme longshot Secretary of State candidate Tad Jude may have given us the best political ad in the nation last week:
And if that ad doesn’t remind you of this — Kurt Russel’s portrayal of Saint Paul’s Herb Brooks before the “Miracle on Ice”…:
…then you need to have your heart recalibrated.
It was absurd to hope that that US hockey team would prevail over the Soviets in 1980. Its absurd to think the “Blue Wave” will fizzle to a moldy trickle. And it’s triple dog absurd to think that a bunch of plucky GOP campaigns, running with a feeble state party, can derail the DFL’s big money juggernaut, their media stranglehold, their vote machine.
But once in a while, the plucky underdog takes the absurd chance, and flips the world on its head.
Screw ’em. Let’s get on the ice.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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