THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

WE PAY FOR SENIORITY, NOT FOR RESULTS | 2003-11-01

Professional judges have been giving hardened criminals light sentences for decades. In response to this, legislatures have been passing minimum sentences and sentencing guidelines.

The news media have just had a big story: It turns out that a lot of judges don't like those minimum sentences. The media say we have to listen to those judges because they have "Experience". A lot of them have thirty years of experience in handing out sentences, so they are experts.

A sane person would laugh at this. Those are the judges who have been letting repeat criminals back on the streets for thirty years. Who in hell would listen to them?

Everybody will listen to them. When those judges told the media that they wanted the right to put psychopaths back on the street, all they had to do was to point out that they had "Experience" in being judges.

And nobody laughed.

These same judges gave hardened criminals light sentences because they said those criminals would reform "if we give them a chance."

The judges were wrong, decade after decade. But that doesn't matter.

The judges just say all those years they were wrong gave them "Experience".

If you are wrong again and again and again, you just have to stop talking about how wrong you were and talk instead about how much Experience you have had.

Talk about Experience and every conservative will listen, smile, nod and drool.

That is how we choose everybody who determines what our future will be.