Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s order for New Yorkers to set their thermostats at 78 degrees reveals the left’s reflexive habit of managing private behavior when its own energy policies fail. Progressive green mandates have already hobbled reliable power in the name of climate virtue, and now residents must suffer indoor heat to paper over the shortage. This is not stewardship; it is the steady expansion of government into the thermostat. The Constitution protects individual liberty precisely by denying officials authority over such intimate household decisions. Limited government exists to secure rights, not to ration comfort or demand collective penance for policy mistakes. Free markets and expanded domestic production have long delivered affordable energy without lectures from City Hall. Americans built this nation by mastering nature, not by submitting to it on command.