Even with $2 gas, 'the house' wins. Because the game is rigged

This is something I try to avoid with all my heart and soul, but lately I've been thinking about Newt Gingrich. A lot. Basically every time I drive pass a gas station and see gas selling for $2.09 a gallon -- realizing that across the river in Jersey and elsewhere around the country it often costs even less than that.

You see, it was Gingrich who, as a 2012 presidential candidate (which feels like it was two decades ago, but anyway..), promised America that a Newt Administration would bring prices at the pump to the seemingly unthinkable level of $2.50 a gallon. Because that was what what was killing America, Gingrich insisted -- a lack of imagination and determination to exploit all the God-given crude that surely lies under our feet, and any new carbon pollution from fossil fuels be damned!

Actually, if you're willing to pretend that the science on global warming doesn't exist (as are all the 2016 Republicans running for president), there's a lot to like about cheap gasoline. For the last century, there's been a huge correlation between whether gas prices are low (the mid-20th Century, 1990s) or high (the 1970s) and the health of the American economy. Low prices at the pump mean lower costs and higher profits for most industries, while allowing middle-class families to spend more on other consumer goods.

In that prism, the surge in U.S. oil production -- most of it during the presidency of supposed fossil-fuel hater Barack Obama -- should be one of the success stories of our time. From fracking in North Dakota to offshore drilling, increased U.S. oil production hasn't just lowered prices but allowed America to reduce imports from the highly unstable (on its best days) Middle East. What a windfall...

Except that now the economy is tanking!

Just today, the Dow dropped another 249 points -- and that was sort of "good" news because for most of the day it was down by closer to 500. And get this: The reason, according to the analysts, is rapidly plunging oil prices, now the lowest they've been since the early 2000s. So far this year, the Dow is down by about 10 percent, and it's only Jan. 20! The average voter is already less thrilled by paying $1.99 'neath that giant Exxon sign that brings this fair city light, and more alarmed about watching his or her retirement money disappearing.

You could say that the big money on Wall Street was thrilled all those years that Big Oil was making trillion-dollar profits and draining your wallet every week; now that the money's coming back to you, they want out. But I'd say the problem runs deeper than that. I think the average citizen would tend to be suspicious that low oil prices are even the real reason that the Dow is tanking. More likely, it's just the smart money cashing out after years of ridiculously over-inflated share prices, using "low oil prices" as their excuse -- and leaving Main Street holding the empty bag.

Again.

The politiical implications are huge. Is it any wonder that in 2016, voters are rejecting traditional breadbasket appeals (such as, 'Elect me and I'll lower the price of gas!') and looking at politicians who would metaphorically blow up the whole system -- whether through the "democratic socialism" of a Bernie Sanders or the whacked-out zenophobia of Trump-Palin World. Because the sight of $2 gas "destroying the economy" is more proof of the conclusion that most voters have already reached. That the game is rigged.