The Red-State Blue-State divide is increasingly apparent in political life. This divide is seen most clearly each election cycle as voters turn out to the polls to support the candidate of their values. Such moments reveal the vast cultural differences across the nation. Everything from the sanctity of human life to the binding nature of biology and gender is on the ballot at nearly every level of government.
These election cycles reveal just how different the value systems of Americans really are. But this divide is also seen in smaller political and cultural moments.
This past month was one such moment.
For decades, June has served as a rallying cry for the LGBTQ+ movement as rainbow flags go up across the country in support of Pride Month. The movement has long been supported by elected officials, with every Democratic president since Bill Clinton issuing a Pride proclamation and even President Trump issuing public tweets in favor of Pride in 2019.
June 2026 was different though, as many states dedicated the month, not to Pride, but to Fidelity.
Fidelity Month began three years ago in the mind of Robert P. George, professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University. The movement exists to celebrate what has long made America great—namely, fidelity to God, family, and country
While the left has framed the movement as a negative reaction against Pride, this is not the case. Fidelity Month was founded not as a reaction against Pride, but as a positive vision of what makes America (and Americans) great.
In this way, the movement is an aspirational one, especially in an age of moral confusion. Dr. George suggests fidelity is a virtue in constant need of renewal in the hearts of all Americans, regardless of political affiliation. Fidelity Month is an opportunity to commit or recommit oneself to the good—that is, “Those things that are not merely means to other ends.”
This pursuit of the good is a breath of fresh air as the values of Americans grow more confused by the day. The Wall Street Journal reports drastic declines in values of patriotism, religion, family, and community since 1998. Pollster Bill McInturff called these declines so dramatic that they paint “a new surprising portrait of a changing America.”
The goal of Fidelity Month is to reverse this trend. And for many states, it’s catching on.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a proclamation on May 29 of this year, declaring June to be Fidelity Month. Governor Spencer Cox has also declared June as Fidelity Month for the state of Utah.
Earlier this year, the Kentucky State Senate sought to bolster the “civic virtues of faith, family, and patriotism” by adopting a resolution (SR 148) that recognizes June of 2026 as Fidelity Month.
And though the resolution passed unanimously, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear nevertheless signed a proclamation recognizing June as Pride Month in the Commonwealth.
In many ways, Governor Beshear’s proclamation and the State Senate’s declaration in SR 148 represent two different visions for human flourishing. The contrast also serves as a microcosm of the larger conflict in the culture.
Whereas Pride focuses on self-expression, self-fulfillment, and moral license, Fidelity instead focuses, not on self, but on others. It calls citizens to consecrate their lives to God, love their country, focus on their familiar duties, and live out their communal obligations. Fidelity Month recognizes that true worth and meaning aren’t found in pride and self-seeking, but in a sacrificial love for those around you.
Individuals would do well to ask themselves: does America need more pride or more fidelity?
A glance across the headlines should answer that question clearly. As sexual scandals rock two major U.S. Senate races (in both red and blue states), it is clear that what the country needs isn’t more self-fulfillment and moral license, but greater fidelity.
As Proverbs reminds us, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Now is the time to rededicate ourselves as Kentuckians to what matters most: our obligations to God, country, and family.
Indeed, these moments of fidelity and self-sacrifice don’t need to be grand and romantic. In fact, they usually look quite small and insignificant. This was precisely what Alexis de Tocqueville noticed about Americans during his 1831-1832 tour of America.
Tocqueville argued that Americans were capable of combating a dangerous form of individualism by pursuing what he called “self-interest rightly understood.” This self-interest rightly understood often produces “no great acts of self-sacrifice, but suggests daily small acts of self-denial.” But in Tocqueville’s observation of the Americans, he realized that these acts of self-denial disciplined Americans in the pursuit of virtue. In other words, in disciplining themselves to the service of something bigger than themselves, Americans were actually helping themselves along the way.
Fidelity is much the same way. In dedicating ourselves to the service of others, we not only help those around us, but also help ourselves in the process.
Pride is very much the opposite. In exalting self-satisfaction as the chief aim of life, one loses out on the joys of serving others and being part of something greater than oneself.
June then poses something of a crossroads across the lives of states, communities, and even individuals. Americans must ask themselves what it is they ought to celebrate.
In answering this question, one must consider Tocqueville’s wisdom about what has historically made our country great.
So too, the wisdom of another man rings true: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).
We would do well as a nation to heed these words.