Fundamental fact of political life. The longer you stay in office, the more dirt accumulates about you, people in the swamp know and a firm grip is kept on you. Most will never take any action against the swamp.
Franklin Roosevelt’s rapid conversion from Constitutionalism to the doctrine of unlimited government is an oft-told story. But I am here concerned not so much by the abandonment of states’ rights by the national Democratic Party — an event that occurred some years ago when that party was captured by the socialist ideologues in and about the labor movement — as by the unmistakable tendency of the Republican Party to adopt the same course. […] Thus, the cornerstone of the Republic, our chief bulwark against the encroachment (on) individual freedom by Big Government, is fast disappearing under the piling sands of absolutism.And considering how long it’s been going on, it is quite remarkable to see what Trump is able to do against it.
The Republican Party, to be sure, gives lip service to states’ rights. We often talk about “returning to the states their rightful powers”; the Administration has even gone so far as to sponsor a federal-state conference on the problem. But deeds are what count, and I regret to say that in actual practice, the Republican Party, like the Democratic Party, summons the coercive power of the federal government whenever national leaders conclude that the states are not performing satisfactorily. …
— The Conscience of a Conservative (1960), pp. 24-25
Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
— Communist goal #15