All these recent events are starting to make me see Palpatine's motivations in a whole new light. It's just a shame George Lucas, and really all creatives involved in Star Wars, weren't able to convey that story in a more effective manner.

Palpatine witnesses a universal superpower, the Trade Federation, attempting to take control of his home planet, Naboo, in order to control its trade lines. The Senate refuses to do anything about the situation, which gives Palpatine the opportunity to take over and clean up the problem. Even with him as Chancellor, the problem persists, and with no army to back him up, the Trade Federation (Globalists, EU, China, pick your poison) continues to run rampant. He establishes the Clone Army to finally hand the Trade Federation the response they deserve, but even so, the Republic's most revered warriors, the Jedi, are proving to be more of a hindrance than an asset, wanting to be "keepers of the peace," ie, pacifists, rather than the Knights and defenders of justice they once were. After the Jedi attempt to assassinate him just for his religious and political beliefs, and not wanting to keep the Republic in a constant state of War for the rest of eternity, he sends Anakin Skywalker to assassinate the leaders of the Trade Federation, executes order 66 to eliminate the near-useless and bigoted Jedi that almost had him killed, and reorganizes the Republic into the Empire.

Presumably, by this point, Palpatine's job is done. The oppressive universalists have been defeated, and peace has been restored to the galaxy. However, it's highly possible that rebellious factions, or remnants of the Federation, could spring up, and create Naboo situations all over again. Under his new Empire, he can't have any of that, so it is up to his armies, fleets, and his right-hand man, Darth Vader, along with an under-construction super weapon to prevent that from happening.

Over the next 30 years, the Senate is slowly phased out, moving from a representative body to a puppet organization and finally nonexistence by the start of Episode IV. Quite possibly the last remaining contrarian Senators were quietly eliminated as the Empire discovered their connections to the various Rebel factions, with the last one being Leia Organa, arrested for leaking classified information. Over the next few years, the Rebel factions slowly regain territory from the Empire, until finally Anakin turns on Palpatine and the Empire is destroyed, restoring the Republic to normalcy.

Not even gonna get into the sequel trilogy cuz I never watched 8 or 9 but it seems like they went with a very rudimentary "bad guy bad" approach, which is a shame, considering the depth of Palpatine's motivations previously.