Instinct of the Conservative from Russell Kirk

Found the quote below from the late Russell Kirk (Confessions of a Bohemian Tory) on the Imaginative Conservative blog...

To speak of American conservative action...may seem a contradiction in terms. The instinct of the conservative, as Lord Hailsham observes, is to enjoy life as he finds it, not to mold society nearer to his heart’s desire; nor does he think of practical politics as the end and aim of being. Family life, church, literature, good talk, good dinners, sometimes good hunting - these things please him far more than parliamentary intrigue or journalistic controversy. It is this mood of enjoyment, in part, which until recently put conservatives at a disadvantage in the United States. For this has been a land of great expectations, rather than of realized satisfactions. The conservative has no enthusiasm for circulating petitions or addressing mass meetings. When he acts, he acts only from compulsion.