But (sniffle) now that he's gone, what shall the nation do without him?

Plenty.

For starters, let's throw off all that phony "Camelot" pretentiousness, and realistically evaluate Kennedy's half-century effort as America's "champion the underdog."

First and foremost, Ted Kennedy was the consummate "problem drinker," who carried a custom silver hip flask, courtesy of  brother Bobby - a gift presented him after becoming Senator to Massachusetts in 1962.

No matter where Teddy Kennedy went - like Mary (and her little lamb) - the silver flask was sure to go.

On the night of his July,1969 accident with Mary Jo Kopechne, Kennedy had been drinking for an estimated 8 hours prior to driving off a wooden bridge. Then - leaving a still-alive 23 year old girl to drown - brave Teddy went back to his hotel and slept it off.

Later on, accounts from news reporters- who had interviewed Kennedy "off the record" - would be taken aback when he would non-chalantly pull out his flask, then drain its contents while recapping his ill-fated life's story.

Of course this was NEVER mentioned by a liberal press, choosing instead to portray Kennedy as some mythical protector of the underclass, rather than his real persona - a callous politician with a surefire forum for getting re-elected: buying votes- a trick that went all the way back to the days of FDR.

Ted Kennedy - knowing full well the story of Franklin D. Roosevelt - was the greatest vote-buyer in American political history.

From the time brother John was killed in 1963, to July 1969 when his chance ended, the Whitehouse had been destined to be Ted Kennedy's for the taking. His father (Joe senior) had always described young Edward (Teddy) as..."the best politician in the family"

That said, by the mid 60's, a power-obsessed Ted Kennedy began to build his coalitions - the minorities, the unions, the poor - the so-called underdogs of society, who's leaders were always in unanimous agreement ..."Ted Kennedy was the ONLY politician in America that could be trusted".

In 1964 - barely four months after his older brother was assassinated - trustworthy Ted Kennedy (then a 32-year-old serving his first term) gave his first major speech on the Senate floor over a divisive, highly controversial Civil Rights Bill.

Kennedy said...(quote) "We should not hate but LOVE one another".... "We should use our powers not to create conditions of oppression that lead to violence, but conditions of freedom that lead to peace"... It is in that spirit that I hope the Senate will pass this bill."

Bravo! Ted Kennedy, always the great speechmaker.

Call it what you will, Kennedy's impassioned statement was indeed, masterful political theater. He was probably half-drunk (or worse) during its delivery- although at the time no breathylizer existed on the Senate floor.

In 1965, it was Senator Ted Kennedy who would create an even more tense society by passing "chain immigration" laws. Presently, millions from incompatible cultures now call America home: Hispanics, Muslims, Hmongs, Koreans, Somalians, Ethiopians, etc.

Additionally, Kennedy's policies have created even greater racial tension between competing (and fast-growing) ethnicities, that have long-since failed to assimilate into America as "Americans."

The result? One of Kennedy's most enduring legacies – multi-culturalism..."press 1 for English; press 2 for Spanish" - with the once-great state of California as its origin.

Visit the "state" of California today; a foreign land of multi-cultural parallel societies; a liberal stew of hate that is responsible for legislators like Boxer, Feinstein and Maxine Waters, who call conservatives "Neanderthals", and want to distribute even more wealth from harried taxpayers, and make an already impossible situation even worse.

Yes; it was all thanks to a scheming, politically-ambitious Ted Kennedy, who's opening of the borders would be his way of establishing a permanent democratic voting block and eventually elect him President.

After 45 years of Ted Kennedy policies, we now face a tsunami of illegal aliens; crowding our classrooms, closing our hospital emergency rooms, unleashing violent crime, and driving down wages.

In the 1960's, it was a young Teddy Kennedy, who campaigned for the Great Society that would eventually destroy the family structure  of the "underclasses" - hurting blacks the worst.

As a result, the jails are filled almost exclusively with men who grew up without fathers, thanks to, among others, Ted Kennedy. . 

It was Kennedy, the great "liberal lion," who spent 47 years clawing our U.S Constitution into shreds.

But are we being too harsh? Are we being mindreaders? Rather, should we grant Ted Kennedy a pass and say "he had great intentions", only with horrible unintended consequences?

To Kennedy's great credit, he was instrumental in writing the law that outlawed age discrimination - the "Americans with Disabilities Act".

As a child, Teddy Kennedy remembered how his mentally retarded older sister, Rosemary, was institutionalized (and later lobotomized) by his uncaring father. Hence, Kennedy did reveal - as many will contend- that he was a man of compassion and decency.

But decent human beings do not act the way Kennedy acted on the night of July 18, 1969, when Mary Jo Kopechne’s life was cut short by the Senator’s cowardly actions; and his subsequent lies to try to save his "future presidency."

Decent human beings do not drive their wives to drink and despair with their philandering ways. Kennedy often cheated on his wife, supported all forms of abortion, covered up for his nephew in 1990 when he raped a young Florida woman; then worst of all - abandoned a poor girl in a watery grave, when she could have been saved.

But other than that, Ted Kennedy was a devout, church-going Catholic.

Ted Kennedy, perhaps the most hypocritical, cowardly politician in American history, is largely responsible for the dark underbelly of America's welfare state; a left wing, bomb-throwing socialist - the most liberal democrat to EVER serve in the U.S. senate.

The unintended consequences of his “compassion” led to a legacy of disasters; the creation of a permanent underclass; the breakup of the black family; the disgrace that is public housing.

All this (and more), is Ted Kennedy’s heritage of compassion.

This man is directly responsible for the "immigration reform" that COMPLETELY changed the demographics and culture of this country. He was behind the scheme to force banks to loan to people who couldn't repay those loans; and not surprisingly, originated the current attempt to take away our personal liberty under the guise of "health care" reform.

But perhaps it would be more fitting they dump his casket into Chappaquiddick - a burial worthy of a true psychopath,  who had abandoned a girl there to die a ghastly death, then had the gall to ask "forgiveness" from the American people.

Boy could we ever use another Tom Jefferson today, or even back in the 60's, when liberals such as Ted Kennedy, took up their semi-permanent residency in the Senate. With the landslide 1964 victory of Lyndon Johnson over Barry Goldwater, it signaled the start of a concomitant landslide of liberal legislation that forever changed our nation in an irreversible way.

Liberalism remains most popular among those in academia and politics, because liberals seek positions of influence. Lliberals commonly tend to be highly educated and relatively affluent. Liberals are predominantly white, and garner the support of the young. They are also the least religious political group.

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Since they are educated and wealthy, liberals believe they're entitled to power. And ironically they seek their power to deny others liberty, holding up fairness as their excuse for legislative tyranny. They seek to “generously" re-distribute wealth from the rich to the poor. They are especially fair when it comes to other peoples money; but they’re quite stingy when it comes to contributing their own. They feel morally superior, even though 43% report they seldom or never attend religious services

They freely pass judgment on others; yet they resent being judged themselves. "Didn't all these evil rich people make their money by taking advantage of the poor? Therefore we must tax them to the point of getting even". To them, Robin Hood had it right from the get go. This tax the rich idea in America really came to the fore in the early 60’s, at a time of economic prosperity.

In the late 50's and early 60's, the unemployment rate had dipped sharply, and people went to work in such significant numbers that companies found themselves short of workers. But under the bold liberal charge of Ed Kennedy, disastrous, job-killing employer-taxation laws were passed in the Senate. Business owners were now required to match their employee's social security contributions, and to pay payroll taxes to the government for every worker under hire. This forced many small business owners into downsizing, because they only could now afford to keep their key employees. Small business creation began to decline almost overnight.

This legislation caused the employer cost of doing business to skyrocket. It's destroyed the formation of untold millions of small businesses ever since, and has kept many an entrepreneur from expanding. It also was the dawn of the big automatic deduction payroll tax. To this day, many companies now go offshore rather than expand domestically.

This liberal doctrine of “fairness” keeps the unemployment rate artificially high. Free enterprise or fair enterprise- which is better for a poor person? Things such as the minimum wage, and mandatory retirement benefits have expanded the welfare state to the point where it's part of the structural economy. These welfare people figure in the unemployment rate, but most are not even seeking work.

Ironically, these liberal legislators probably couldn't even recognize a pick or a shovel, or ever worked a hard day in their lives. If they did, they'd realize what it is to earn money, and would respect an individual's or employer’s right to keep their earnings, rather than tax them to the limit, and spend the tax revenues to help the poor people that these liberals themselves have created.

Nowadays, to start a small business, one has to pay many fees, and have insurances in place before they can start out. It’s no wonder that most small businesses are either family-run, or are the result of spin-offs from some larger company that refused to act on some promising new entrepreneurial idea. How would a married person with a family start a small enterprise? Either he or she maxes out credit cards, or a great idea withers on the vine.

If everybody was free to make a buck with their own idea or initiative, what else would stop them from taking a shot? Everyone has their own dream of how they would get rich. But unless you know a banker, lawyer and insurance agent, you have to pay dearly and risk almost everything to go into business today.

Good ol' liberalism; these people constantly are trying to make the world "as it should be", rather than the way it actually is. The country probably will never learn its lesson and throw off these regulations, until the political climate undergoes an apocalyptic shift to the right; but demographics and time are decidedly against it. Ever since FDR and the New Deal, liberalism has been gathering political momentum. The two-term limit of the presidency will probably preclude any chance of ever reversing this disastrous political trend of trying to be fair to the poor.

It’s estimated that since the Great Society liberalism of the Johnson administration in 1964, an astonishing wealth transfer of 41 trillion dollars has gone toward welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment funds, and other government directives and entitlements. And already, the country is faced with another 35 trillion in unfunded future entitlement obligations for the next 30 years. But as recently as this month, Congress ‘generously’ added on another $800 billion onto our 9.5 trillion national debt, to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because of the housing bust; and the liberal media doesn't say boo about it.

Of course, if there were enough conservative media people to take on the warning role of the canary in the coal mine, this monetary insanity of our fiscal policy would be held more at bay, and possibly go into reverse. But otherwise, it'll take the collapse of the dollar and a second depression before any one decides this all wasn't such a good idea in the first place.