Okay, hot take: people care about gas prices because it's how most people are exposed to politics. No matter how wilfully ignorant you are, you can't not notice gas prices spiking. Most of the rest of politics is opaque unless you're tuned in.

So why does that matter? Because it means everyone (with a car) knows there's another war in the middle east. So anyone who thought Iraq was bullshit and voted for Trump because he promised "no more wars" is painfully aware that he lied now.