To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government.

The remark argues that concentrated, unchallenged political power tends to produce corruption, complacency, and unresponsiveness. By warning against “lodg[ing] all power in one party” and then entrenching it, the speaker emphasizes the need for competition, rotation, and institutional checks—whether through elections, opposition parties, or divided government. The underlying assumption is not that any one party is uniquely wicked, but that monopoly itself is the danger: without the pressure of accountability and the possibility of replacement, governing elites can prioritize self-preservation over public service. The quote thus functions as a defense of pluralism and a critique of one-party dominance as structurally conducive to “bad government.”