“The only pledge I’d sign is a pledge to sign no more pledges.” That bit of wisdom came from Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, during his successful run for a U.S. Senate seat. Now a few of his more courageous colleagues are taking the same path and renouncing the politics of purity.

For more than 25 years, most Republican officeholders have bowed to the browbeating of one unelected, unappointed lobbyist named Grover Norquist, who demanded that they sign a pledge to never, ever raise taxes of any kind. That vow ranks as one of the worst ideas to infect Washington in the last generation, so the “no more pledges” movement is an especially heartening development.

A total ban on new taxes cripples the ability of the government to meet its mounting fiscal obligations. Every sane person in the capital knows that additional revenue must be part of any deal to diminish the deficit. So no new taxes means no deal. Ever. Period.

But Norquistism is even worse than that. It epitomizes the larger idea of politics as theology, as holy war. Orthodoxy is demanded and enforced. Heretics are burned at the stake (or at least challenged in primaries). Compromise, one of the noblest words in the political language, is denounced as caving in and selling out.