Why The Media Still Doesn't Understand America | The Great American Pushback

What if the biggest story in America isn't politics at all?

In this episode of The Right Side:  After watching the massive UFC event associated with President Trump, Doug Billings realized the real story wasn't the fights, the celebrities, or even Trump himself.

The story was the crowd.

Why do America's media elites, Hollywood elites, and political elites seem perpetually shocked by election results, cultural trends, and the values of ordinary Americans?

Doug explores the growing disconnect between the people who shape America's culture and the people who actually live in America.

Drawing on his experiences growing up in Kansas City, years in education, and conversations with thousands of listeners across the country, Doug explains why millions of Americans are rediscovering confidence in their own values, their own observations, and their own common sense.

This isn't really a story about UFC.

It's a story about family, faith, patriotism, personal responsibility, culture, and why ordinary Americans are no longer willing to let elites define reality for them.

Topics include:

• The cultural significance of Trump's UFC event
• Why media elites keep misreading America
• The disconnect between Hollywood and Main Street
• Family, faith, and traditional American values
• Why ordinary Americans are pushing back
• The Great American Pushback and the future of the Republic

The story isn't politics. The story is culture. And culture always comes first.

Contribute to The Right Side with Doug Billings at: www.DougBillings.us

We're in this together. Believe it.

For the Republic!

Cheers.

 #DougBillings #TheRightSide #AmericaFirst #MAGA #ConservativePodcast #Patriot #AmericanCulture #Trump #UFC #MediaBias #PoliticalCommentary #CultureWar #FaithFamilyFreedom #Podcast 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

The Right Side with Doug Billings. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Right Side. Ladies and gentlemen, over the weekend, I found myself watching coverage of the UFC event on the White House lawn featuring uh President Trump and all of the people that were involved in that. And as I thought about it, it dawned on me that the story wasn't the fight, and the story wasn't the UFC. In fact, the story wasn't even Trump. What was the story was, for me, in my analysis of the whole thing, was the crowd. Because I looked at those people and I thought to myself, now that's America. I saw people who looked like the people I grew up with around Kansas City. I saw people who worked hard, who've raised families, who worry about their kids, who love their country, they attend church, they coach little league, they own small businesses. They just want a good future for the next generation. And then it hit me. Why do so many people in the media and in certain circles within the elected class, clearly on the radical liberal left and the entertainment class, why do they seem so completely confused about those Americans who we saw at that event? Why are these people in the media, in the elected class, in the entertainment industry, why are they constantly surprised by things like election results or shocked by cultural trends? Why do they keep misunderstanding the country that they're supposed to be analyzing? Well, I think I know the answer. I think a lot of America's cultural elites have become so insulated from ordinary Americans that they don't any longer recognize them when they see them. And that's what today's episode is all about. It's not really about the UFC, it's not about politics. It's about a growing disconnect between the people, the people who shape America's culture, and the people who actually live in America. And I think that that disconnect explains a lot more about our country's current state of play than most people realize. So I want to talk about that. I was watching that coverage of the event, the UFC event over the weekend, and it dawned on me. Like I said, the story wasn't the fights. The story wasn't even President Trump. What the story was was the crowd. That's the story. Now, like I just said, um, when you look at those people, you recognize them. The UFC isn't my it's not my thing, right? I do not go out of my way to watch UFC events. I want to be perfectly transparent. I've never attended one. I've never watched a full UFC event until I watched the events over the weekend. And I'm never going to probably watch one again. It just doesn't, it just doesn't do anything for me. I've I've never been the guy who clears his schedule so I can watch people climb into a cage and beat each other up. That's just not how I'm wired. But I do pay attention to people and I pay attention to the culture because culture usually tells you where a country is headed a long time before politics catch up with it. So I'm watching these images from the event, and I keep thinking the same thing over and over, and that is I know these people. Not personally, but I know them. You know what I mean? I've spent my entire life around those kind of people. I grew up around them. I went to school with them. I worked with them. I've taught their kids when I used to be a teacher, sat next to them in church, I've talked to them after their speeches. I've met thousands of people just like that. A lot of the people that I've met are exactly a result of working on this show for the last six years. And the more that I watched the event over the weekend, the more one question kept coming into my mind. Why do so many people in the media seem completely incapable of recognizing those Americans? Well, I think it's because what's really happening is the people who run much of our media, our entertainment industry, cultural institutions, and so forth, they perpetually seem surprised whenever ordinary Americans make themselves heard. Every election surprises them. Every cultural trend surprises them. Every political shift surprises these people. Well, I think I finally figured out why that is. They're not paying attention to the same country. Now, before I make anybody out there upset, I'm not saying that they're bad people. I'm saying that they're insulated people, and there's a difference. You know, one of the dangers of success is that you can accidentally build a bubble around yourself. You know that, right? That's what the elites have done, at least a lot of them have. The more successful you become, the easier it is to spend time around people who think like you, who vote like you, live like you, and see the world exactly the way that you do. And eventually that becomes your reality. The problem is that your reality isn't really reality. And I think that's what's happened to a lot of our cultural elites. They spend a lot of time out there talking to each other about how they've lost touch with the people that they're supposedly analyzing, but they don't give a second thought to why that's happened. And that's why they keep getting America wrong. And I was thinking about my childhood when I was growing up in Kansas City. When I was growing up, America didn't seem nearly as complicated as people try to make it today. People worked, people raised families, people worried about paying their bills, they went to church if they were churchgoers, people attended ball games. The men back in the day, when we went to a ball game, we wore a suit and tie. Imagine that. People argued a little bit about politics, but it wasn't the result. The result wasn't the ending of a friendship. And they went back to work the next day and life went on. Nobody spent much time obsessing over cultural theories. And nobody walked around trying to reinvent society before lunch hour. Most people were just trying to build a good life when I was growing up. And here's what I find interesting. I still think that that's true. I really do. When I travel around the country and when I speak at events, when I meet listeners, and when I walk through airports, when I sit in restaurants, I mean, I don't encounter the America that's portrayed on television. You know what I mean? I encounter normal people. The America that I see is filled with parents worried about their children, grandparents worried about their grandchildren, small business owners worried about the economy, worries about and from workers with regards to inflation and gas prices, and people worried about whether their country is headed in the right direction or not. That's the America I encounter. But then I turn on the television, and it's as though somebody is describing a completely different nation when I watch a show on television. That's where the disconnect begins. And I don't think Americans are frustrated because they hate anybody. I think they're frustrated because they feel invisible. There's a big difference in those things. Nobody likes being ignored. Nobody likes being told that their, you know, experiences don't matter. Nobody likes being told that they, you know, that what they see with their own eyes isn't real. Imagine somebody walking into your house and trying to convince you that your family doesn't actually operate the way it operates. You'd think they were crazy. But that's essentially what institutions have been doing to ordinary Americans for years. They've been telling people that their values are outdated, their concerns are misguided, their observations are flawed. And eventually people reach a point where they stop listening. And I think that's where we are. Now, here's the part, as Mr. Spock would say, that fascinates me. This is fascinating. It really is. The media keeps analyzing everything through politics. And I think they're looking in the wrong place. The story isn't politics, the story is culture. Politics is downstream from culture. It always has been. Long before people vote, they develop beliefs. And way before they develop beliefs, they develop values. And long before they develop values, they're shaped by family, faith, community experience, and culture. And that's why I think saying that the UFC crowd was the story. Because I think it was. Not because of the sport, not because of Trump, but because of what the crowd represented. The crowd at that event represented millions of Americans who still believe in things that were considered completely normal for most of our nation's history. They believe in family and that it matters. They believe hard work matters. They believe personal responsibility matters. They believe patriotism matters. They believe freedom matters. And here's the thing: most Americans still believe those things. That's what the elites, they don't get it. They don't understand it. They can't wrap their head around that. They're convinced, or maybe they've convinced themselves, that they're looking at a fringe movement when they're looking at us, when they're actually looking at the mainstream. That's why they're constantly shocked. They're studying the edges of American culture while ignoring the center of gravity in this country. And the center of gravity is represented by the people that we saw at that event over the weekend. The center eventually reminds people that it still exists. And that's what happened with Trump. That's what happened with the populist movement. That's what continues happening every time ordinary Americans refuse to follow the script. The script says that America is fundamentally broken. Most Americans don't believe that. The script says that patriotism is outdated. Most Americans don't believe that. The script says that faith belongs on the margins. Most Americans don't believe that. Now, does that mean that America doesn't have problems? Of course not. We've got plenty of problems. But here's the difference. Most Americans still believe that those problems can be solved. That's one of the reasons I'm optimistic, because beneath all the noise, all the outrage, all the headlines, and all of the political theater, I can still see something very powerful. I see people who haven't given up on the country. And I see people who still believe that America is worth preserving. I see people who still believe that the future can be better than the present. And that's why I think that the media keeps misunderstanding this moment and this state of play in America. They think they're watching a political movement. I think they're watching a cultural correction. And I think we're watching millions of Americans rediscover confidence in who they are. And once people regain confidence in who they are, they're no longer going to be easily manipulated. They're no longer easily intimidated. They're no longer willing to apologize for values that they've held their entire life. That's the story. Not the UFC, not even President Trump. The story is that ordinary Americans are beginning to trust themselves again. And when that happens, history tends to change. And that's going to be the result of the great reawakening that we're in the presence of experiencing right now. MAGA is alive and well. The America First Movement is alive and well. And it's well beyond being defined by President Trump. It is in the DNA now of the Republican conservative movement. It's not going away. It will continue for multiple generations. We've got to give ourselves permission to believe this and understand that we represent a vast majority of people. It's interesting, isn't it, that the radical left got so upset with this event over the weekend when just a few years ago, when Administrator Biden and Vice Pretender Harris were in office, they invited troves of people who took off their tops and believed in multiple genders and the entire LBGTQ Kook movement, and absolutely desecrated the lawn of the White House with anti-American rhetoric and from a group, a demographic of people that represents 0.02% of the entire population. And what we saw last weekend with the UFC event was the real story. The people, the people that gathered represented 98% of the demographic in this country. Believe it, ladies and gentlemen. Until we meet again, stay diligent, stay informed. Like, share, and subscribe to the program over on YouTube at the right side Doug Billings. Follow me on X at Doug Billings on Facebook at the right side Doug Billings. And please prayerfully consider donating to the show over at Doug Billings.us so that I can keep on offering it everywhere for free. We're in this together, ladies and gentlemen. Believe it for the Republic. Cheers. The right side with Doug Billings.