As much as I would have enjoyed a Palpatine cameo in Andor, I love what his absence in the senatorial scenes shows.
It shows that Palpatine has absolutely no regard for the facade of democracy any longer. It shows that he has no regard for the system that he abused to get himself to where he is, he never did of course, but he at least said all the right words for it. Now, he doesn’t even send a voicemail.
It shows that, now that he’s gotten what he wanted, he never cared about politics, they were only a means to his end. It shows, ala the post-credits scene, that he’s so hyperfocused on the Death Star as his expression of power, rather than through the political process, because for all that Palpatine is a master manipulator and had a lot of patience, he’s still a Sith Lord and the Sith cannot help themselves at the end of the day, they don’t want power that is mundane or that people can argue back against, they want power that is crushing, that literally steals the life from people.
It shows that the galaxy is just a few short years away from Palpatine dissolving the Senate completely because his power is so complete over the Empire that he can get away with it, he’s been getting away with it for years, he’s been shedding every check and balance since the moment he stood up on that podium and declared the Republic dead and the Empire risen.
His absence shows his complete disregard for everything Mon Mothma is fighting for, that even the illusion of democracy is too unimportant for him to bother with. Of course that’s how he behaves right at the tipping point of the galaxy into Rebellion, he can’t even pretend to care about governing anymore.
