New York City's socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani gave residents a taste of collectivist governance this week, and the city did not appreciate it. As a brutal holiday heat wave pushed the "feels like" temperature toward 112 degrees, Mamdani took to social media not to fix the problem, but to lecture ordinary New Yorkers on how warm their own homes should be.
His instructions were simple and telling. Set your air conditioner to 78 degrees. Turn off your lights. Unplug your electronics. Ease demand on a power grid that, in his words, is "working overtime." The mayor assured everyone the city was doing its part too, keeping its own buildings at 78 and dimming lights during peak hours. How generous.
Here is the problem the mayor would rather you not think about. When government cannot keep the lights on, its first instinct is never to build more, produce more, or plan better. Its first instinct is to ration. To tell you to make do with less. To turn your living room into a sauna and call it shared sacrifice. That is not leadership. That is central planning meeting reality, and reality winning.
The reaction was swift and deserved. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders summed up the lesson in five words, noting that socialism is not actually free. Rep. Brandon Gill pointed out the obvious, that a functioning government should be able to plan for the wildly predictable fact that summers get hot. Commentator Matt Walsh spoke for millions when he said his own thermostat does not climb above 68, because this is America. The post was viewed more than 36 million times, and the verdict was overwhelming.
This is the pattern, and New Yorkers should study it closely. First the grid strains under policies that punish energy production. Then comes the ask to conserve. Then the ask becomes a rule. Mamdani is already imposing the 78 degree standard on city buildings by mandate. History suggests the government rarely stops at asking nicely.
A confident, competent government invests in reliable power and lets its citizens live comfortably in the homes they pay for. A socialist government hands out thermostats settings and tells you to be grateful for the grid staying up at all. New Yorkers just got a small, sweaty preview of the difference. The heat wave will pass. The mindset behind that instruction will not.
