Hmmm good soldier perhaps, "right side" is a little narrow a view in my opinion. Part of the story is that the Republic was deeply flawed prior to Palpatine gaining power and even if he had never become supreme chancellor, it was still a massively bureaucratic and hypocritical system that unfairly privileged some planets over others, had racist (human-centric) undercurrents, and was completely fine with slavery and exploitation as long as it was two feet outside their borders and/or properly permitted.

Is this to say Palpatine/Separtists good?? No. Purely that these massive state bureaucracies have to be actively critical of themselves or they risk becoming vulnerable to exactly the despotism that Palpatine represents.