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Opening Arguments

Maybe they had their fing

So much for pledges:

Grover Norquist's grip on the House Republican Conference is loosening.

A growing number of GOP lawmakers have disavowed Norquist's pledge against supporting tax increases in recent days, telling The Hill they no longer feel bound to uphold a document that they signed, in some cases, more than a decade ago.

Of course, of all the pledges a politician might sign, the no-tax-increase pledge is the one I'd favor the most. But signing them is a dumb idea, and the more of them a candidate puts his or her name on, the less I'd be likely to express approval with my vote, even if most of the pledges took positions I agreed with. The reason is obvious and hinted at in that second paragraph. Something you signed may have made sense to you when you signed it a decade or two ago. But things change, and a politician who feels bound by a pledge doesn't have the flexibility to consider the shifting circumstances. We have a representative system, not a pure democracy, which means our legislators have to be able to think in order to do what they believe is right. I like Grover Norquist's efforts, God love him, but I don't remember ever electing him to anything.

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