Nina Yang is one of seven judges on Colorado’s federal trial court, taking that seat in 2022 after her nomination by President Joe Biden.  Speaking at her formal investiture she emphasized the core of her judicial philosophy, “The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.”  That’s a noble statement very much in concert with the progressive social justice movement.

I’d agree it’s one measure of the character of our system of criminal justice, but not the sole “true” measure of that, and certainly not of our society as a whole.  Other at least equally important measures of the character of criminal justice are due process for all, impartiality, justice for victims of crime, and the impact on public safety.  We’ve seen the all too obvious destructive consequences of excessive leniency for those who commit criminal acts from car thefts to organized-group-shoplifting in the decline of cities across the country like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle and Denver.

Judge Yang’s narrow view is a close cousin to other progressive platitudes masquerading as truth and wisdom such as: “The true measure of a society is how it treats the weak and needy.”  Again, you might say that’s one measure of a society but hardly the only “true measure” of a society — or even the most important.

The unfulfilled promise of Marxism, after all, is: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”  This sentiment comports with Bernie Sanders’s philosophy–shared by his socialist followers and idealistic young students–but its incompatibility with human nature dooms it to failure as a system of political economy.  It crushes incentive and punishes success while rewarding failure and idleness. Moreover, socialism’s pathway to totalitarianism and societal poverty has been evident in places like the Soviet Union, North Korea, Cuba and, most recently, Venezuela.

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