The passing of Senator Edward Kennedy marks the end of a chapter in America’s enduring love affair with his family. But the true significance of his death has less to do with Kennedy lore than with the paradoxical place he occupied in US politics, at the same time the embodiment of the Democratic party’s leftwing conscience and the crafter of compromises with its most conservative foes.

Kennedy leaves behind a Senate of lesser lawmakers. His stature as a grand legislator was helped by the Kennedy cachet, his experience and seniority, and an ability to recruit what was, by common consent, the best and brightest staff on Capitol Hill. But his achievement – as Democrats in particular would do well to note – derived most of all from the pragmatic pursuit of his liberal cause.