But after a year of Trump, Republicans have come around to thinking states have few if any rights.
As Attorney General, Sessions has green-lighted a federal crackdown on marijuana in states that have legalized it.
He and Trump are also blocking sanctuary cities from receiving federal grants. (A federal judge recently stayed Trump's executive order on grounds that it violates the Tenth Amendment, but Trump and Sessions are appealing the decision.)
Trump is also seeking to gut California's tough environmental rules. His Interior Department is opening more of California's federal land and coastline to oil and gas drilling, and Trump's EPA is moving to repeal new restrictions on a type of heavily-polluting truck California was relying on to meet its climate and air quality goals.
Meanwhile, the Republican House has approved the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would prevent states from enforcing their own laws barring concealed handguns against visitors from other states that permitted them.
For the new GOP, states' rights be damned. Now it's all about consolidating power in Washington, under Trump.
The third former pillar of Republicanism was a hard line on Russian aggression.
When Obama forged the New Start treaty with Moscow in 2010, Republicans in Congress charged that Vladimir Putin couldn't be trusted to carry out any arms control agreement.
And they complained that Obama wasn't doing enough to deter Putin in Eastern Ukraine. "Every time [Obama] goes on national television and threatens Putin or anyone like Putin, everybody's eyes roll, including mine," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. "We have a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression."
That was then. Now, despite explicit findings by American intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election -- the most direct attack on American democracy ever attempted by a foreign power -- Republicans in Congress want to give Russia a pass.
They don't even want to take steps to prevent further Russian meddling. They've played down a January report by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee warning that the Kremlin will likely move to influence upcoming U.S. elections, including those this year and in 2020.
The reason, of course, is the GOP doesn't want to do anything that might hurt Trump or rile his followers.
The GOP under Trump isn't the first political party to bend its principles to suit political expediency. But it may be the first to jettison its principles entirely, and over so short a time.
If Republicans no longer care about the federal debt, or state's rights, or Russian aggression -- what exactly do they care about? What are the core principles of today's Republican Party?
Winning and getting even.
But as a year with Trump as president has shown, this is no formula for governing.
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