Then things really began to fall apart, from Lepore’s perspective, when Ronald Reagan arrived with a political scythe directed at tax rates he believed had thwarted economic growth in America. Of course, Lepore makes no mention of the “stagflation” and economic malaise that contributed to Reagan’s election and his success in reshaping the country’s fiscal policy. Nor does she mention Reagan’s impressive economic record (including restoration of strong GDP growth rates). Such mentions would have implied that there was some logic in Americans’ affirmative response to Reagan’s fiscal advocacy.

Lepore ends her article by listing in dramatic fashion all the things we get from taxes, including “civilized society, modernity, prosperity…roads and schools and bridges and police and teachers…doctors and nursing homes and medicine…rescue workers, shelters, and services” and much more.

Of course we do. But we also get bloated governments with huge unfunded liabilities in government-employee-benefit programs; unchecked bureaucracies; a tax code that favors those who know how to game the system over ordinary citizens; mammoth corporate-welfare programs for huge companies and particularly big banks; and the kind of corruption seen in President Obama’s subsidies to Solyndra and other “clean energy” enterprises (which, among other things, helped former Democratic Vice President Al Gore increase his net worth from $2 million to $100 million since leaving public service).

This issue isn’t, as Lepore would have it, about whether we should have a tax system so we can have a civilized society or whether we should do away with taxation as a menace. It is about what kind of tax system we should have; how much it should extract from the toil of Americans at any given time based on a careful assessment of the needs of society balanced against the impact of taxation on individual enterprise; what kind government we want and how big and intrusive it should be; and whether we wish to become a social-democratic society in the mold of Western Europe or adhere generally to our heritage of rugged individualism and entrepreneurial ferment.

These questions rise up into the country’s consciousness and its direction-setting every day. It’s called politics, and it is firmly and appropriately in the hands of the American people, who set the country’s azimuth on an ongoing basis by responding to the political stimuli brought forth by the political system.

Which brings us back to Grover Norquist. Unlike Jill Lepore, he understands how this system works, and he’s been plying these turbulent waters with remarkable success for a long time. One can only imagine, reading Lepore’s New Yorker article, just how nettlesome and irritating and enraging he is to such people—and why they may be a bit gleeful as they see the forces of fiscal failure bearing down on his famous Pledge.

But this game isn’t over—or, as Norquist puts it, this isn’t his first rodeo. And, however it ends, the profound societal questions raised by tax policy aren’t going to be settled in any definitive way. That’s because they are embedded in the American political system as thoroughly as the separation of powers or the tenure of Supreme Court justices. And Grover Norquist’s political philosophy will continue to be a significant part of the debate, as will the man himself.

Robert W. Merry is editor of The National Interest and the author of books on American history and foreign policy. His most recent book is Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians.