What Gray describes, what is happening in America, is that conservatism is being confronted with its own contradictions. Unbridled capitalism is an awesome force that creates new factories, wealth and opportunities that go first to society's risk takers and holders of capital. But unbridled capitalism is also an awesome destructive force. It makes men and women obsolete as rapidly as it does the products they produce and the plants that employ them. Unbridled capitalism tells them they cannot.
Conservatism is thus at a crossroads.
A reluctance to choose lies behind the conservative crackup.