The Conservative Cocoon

Dreher reflects on his time at National Review:

Without realizing it until later, I put pressure on myself to be a good member of the team. It's awfully easy to buy into the worldview that there is a such thing as political orthodoxy, and there are some who are reliable, and some who aren't. It's not even a stated thing, at least I rarely heard it stated. It's just a matter of felt loyalty. You know who's on side, and who isn't, and you want to be onside, not because you're afraid of being blackballed if you aren't, but because these are your people and you want to be supportive of them and the cause.