Ben Shapiro’s signature line is “Facts don’t care about your feelings,” which is true enough.
But the reverse is also true: Feelings don’t care about facts, and the fact is that feelings are what drive most political action. It’s why socialism retains a strong brand identity despite its indisputable failures and record of leaving poverty, dead bodies, and eventual societal collapse in its wake.
None of that matters, because it makes its proponents feel good about themselves and satisfies the desire for simple answers to complicated problems. It also gives an outlet to people enraged that others are happier and more successful than they are. If you are filled with raw hatred, you now have a target to blame for all your troubles and a clear plan of action to solve them while getting all that aggression out.
Most problems derive in one way or another from resource constraints, poorly designed systems, poor choices by the people experiencing them, or simple bad luck. There most certainly ARE problems caused by bad actors, and there are fights between good and evil, but generally speaking, the average derives from mundane causes that require mundane solutions, or is even insoluble because the underlying cause isn’t responsive to policy changes.
Still, when people are angry, it’s easy to pitch “solutions” that sound good, even if they’re disastrous. Price controls fit that bill nicely.
Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa says she will declare a “high-cost emergency” and freeze residential electricity rates within an hour of taking office. The plan clashes with Texas’ competitive energy market, where over 100 retail providers compete for consumers under a deregulation law. Nick Loris, president of @C3Journal, warns the freeze could leave suppliers unable to adequately provide power. Full story here https://t.co/f4jvG2PvCe
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) November 10, 2026
Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa says she will declare a “high-cost emergency” and freeze residential electricity rates within an hour of taking office. The plan clashes with Texas’ competitive energy market, where over 100 retail providers compete for consumers under a deregulation law. Nick Loris, president of @C3Journal, warns the freeze could leave suppliers unable to adequately provide power.
Texas kinda-sorta has a power affordability problem although relatively speaking it isn’t much of one compared to the country as a whole and it has nothing to do with what power companies charge per kilowatt-hour. In fact, Texas’ electricity rates are below average nationally, and states with lower per-unit prices have them because they can access extremely cheap power from local sources, especially hydropower from dams built decades ago. Dams, in some cases, which are at risk of destruction due to environmental concerns, but that is a different column someday.
To the extent Texans face higher power bills, it’s because it is HOT in Texas, and Texans aren’t Parisians who enjoy sweating and stinking all the time. I don’t think that is going to change any time soon.
Still, Gina Hinojosa wants to make Texans feel better in the moment, so she is declaring a “high-cost emergency” to freeze electricity rates, assuming you can just tell power companies to produce electricity more cheaply and give it away at prices lower than the market can provide.
Electricity rates in Texas result from supply and demand working through auctions, where high-demand times cost more than low-demand times, and power is routed to where it is most needed in real time. Power generators auction their power; utilities buy at rates that make sense for their customers, and supply goes where demand is highest. Market signals, you know…
On her first day in office, Texas Democratic Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa plans to freeze residential electricity rates in response to what she described as an affordability crisis.
“On Day One as governor, I’ll freeze residential electricity rates and make corporations finally pay their fair share,” Hinojosa said in an interview with a local energy data group. She reiterated the plan in an interview with the Texas Tribune, stating, “Within an hour of taking the oath of office, I will declare a high-cost emergency in the state of Texas and issue an emergency executive order to … freeze electricity rates.”
The plan is raising concerns that such a freeze will clash with Texas’ uniquely competitive energy sector, which relies heavily on free-market choice, and that it could inadvertently create energy shortages as suppliers are prevented from adjusting their prices.
Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat from Texas and former state legislator, speaks to members of the media during a block walk campaign event in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (Christopher Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
That’s the concern of Nick Loris, the president of C3 Solutions, a conservative coalition for climate solutions that focuses on energy, environment and agriculture policy.
He expects the emergency declaration will face legal challenges almost immediately from energy providers. In particular, he cast doubt on the scope of the emergency declaration.
“The Texas Disaster Act lets the governor declare disasters and suspend the regulatory laws and statutes that are in existence. But I think there is a high degree of skepticism, both from courts but also from state policymakers, that this warrants such a claim — and that it is such a disaster,” Loris told Fox News Digital.
“I would imagine if there were legal challenges, it would come from those affected parties,” he added.
Loris explained that Texas has fostered one of the most competitive energy environments in the country.
In 1999, the state passed Senate Bill 7 — a piece of legislation that opened most of the state to retail choice, allowing customers to pick their preferred retail electric providers (REPs), beginning in 2002.
The system is not perfect, because no system is perfect, but it works very well and has kept electric rates below the national average as providers compete for customers.
Hinojosa’s “solution” to the affordability “problem” is to take a hammer to a system that works as well as or better than others, and it ignores why prices have been under pressure to begin with, which has everything to do with inflation and increased demand for fuel. No government mandate or declaration of an “emergency” is going to change the fundamental economics.
What it will do, though, is make Hinojosa’s base feel good, harm companies that these people hate with a passion unconnected to any real cause, and make things worse for everybody, but only in the future. Short-term gain, long-term pain and destruction.
That is the inevitable pattern in liberal policies. Dump money into a program to “solve” a problem, make it worse, rinse, repeat. Regulate an industry to “solve” a problem, watch it collapse. Implement “compassionate” policies such as decarceration and reducing the police, watch crime skyrocket, and blame everybody else.
This is what happened with Obamacare, which was supposed to help everybody, bend the cost curve, expand affordability, and lead us to the promised land. Instead, prices went up, people lost their doctors and the insurance they liked, and now everybody is complaining about the price of healthcare.
And this move is just the start. Hinojosa has plans for immigration, data centers, and a whole host of issues that will fundamentally change Texas and its business environment.
Her base will love it; she can sell the feelz over facts and reality, and it will take months or years for the populace to feel any of the consequences, and they won’t associate the cause with the effect, as so often happens.
Instead, they will look for another scapegoat. Scapegoats are satisfying to beat on; solving real problems competently rarely is, although Ron DeSantis proved you can build a solid political career by doing it right and consistently.
The feelz-over-facts problem is the argument against populism, just as government corruption and the increasing power of insiders are the argument for why populism arises and is often necessary to break the back of the elite.
Neither technocracy nor pure democracy is sustainable in the long run, which is why pendulums swing in republics. Durable majorities self-destruct.
Hinojosa’s move is classic left-populism, just like rent control policies. They are disastrous, but only in the long run, which is why they keep returning. In the short run, they just feel good.
Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it’s spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there’s nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.
Help us continue to shine a light on the socialist takeover by joining HotAir VIP. Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.
