Liberalism Through Strength — and Through Meaning
Under Churchill’s Gaze: Liberalism Through Strength — and Through Meaning
By Chama Mechtaly
Earlier this month, I stood beneath a towering portrait of a young Winston Churchill at the National Liberal Club in London. I had just spoken about the future of liberalism against the backdrop of rising extremism — the same extremism that has, since October 7th, set our liberal colleges and institutions ablaze.
The portrait captured more than the defiance of a young military leader. It captured Churchill’s anxiety, his discomfort about the world to come. Instinctively, I thought of Hamilton’s lyrics, slightly altered: Churchill “has his eyes on you.”
Chama Mechtaly at the National Liberal Club, London, April 2nd, 2025. (Andy Sillett)
Churchill’s warnings about Adolf Hitler and the Nazi threat came almost a decade before the bombs fell on London and the Jews of Europe were herded into gas chambers. At a time when the world desperately clung to illusions of peace, he saw what many refused to acknowledge: that the very foundations of civilization — liberty, truth, human dignity — were under siege. And he knew that what was required was not appeasement, but decisiveness and courage.
Though he had the sensibility of a painter — and a prolific one — Churchill understood that peace is not passive. It must be defended, even built, through strength, character, culture, and meaning. In his 1938 speech, The Defence of Freedom and Peace, he warned:
“If, through an earnest desire for peace, we have placed ourselves at a disadvantage, we must make up for it by redoubled exertions, and, if necessary, by fortitude in suffering. We shall, no doubt, arm.”
Prime Minister Winston Churchill painting in France during a vacation in 1948. (Getty Images)
Churchill knew that true defense meant more than military strength. It meant arming the mind. Free thought, open speech, and democratic ideals are weapons authoritarian extremists fear most — which is precisely why culture is their first target.
Extremists across the Middle East and beyond, posing as reformers, have dismantled these ideals once in power: imprisoning artists, silencing musicians, erasing women’s visibility, criminalizing songs and dreams. In Iran, rapper Toomaj Salehi was arrested in 2022 for supporting the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement. He endured over 250 days in solitary confinement, brutally tortured, his body broken for daring to speak. Only a global outcry overturned his death sentence.
When culture is stripped of meaning, freedom itself weakens. Throughout history, cultural vitality has proven as crucial to peace as military power. Churchill understood this. Beyond the battlefield and Parliament, he turned to painting — seeking clarity, strength, and solace in beauty. For him, beauty was not an escape from politics; it was its antidote. Today, attacks on art, music, and the finer aspects of culture signal not progress, but a sinister rejection of civilization itself.
The liberal tradition Churchill fought to preserve now faces its own distortion. Statues are toppled, legacies reduced to slogans, and history flattened into rigid binaries: colonizer and colonized, villain and victim. In place of critical inquiry, ideology; in place of humanism, grievance.
This is not justice. It is a new form of intolerance — one that denies complexity, growth, and the possibility of redemption.
Cultural relativism extends empathy to all civilizations except one. The inheritance of the West is torn down not to build anew, but to create a vacuum — fertile ground for violence, extremism, and despair.
If liberalism is to survive, it must be more than a set of rules. It must be lived, embodied, renewed — a culture as much as a constitution, a consciousness as much as a contract.
The work ahead demands nothing less. And so, here are some of my guiding principles:
1. Reclaim Moral Clarity
Not all ideas are equal. Liberalism must unapologetically champion freedom of conscience, gender equality, religious pluralism, and the rule of law — everywhere and for everyone.
2. Tell Fuller Stories
History must be embraced in its full complexity. Honoring both achievements and failures allows for deeper, truer understanding.
3. Celebrate Builders, Not Only Critics
A flourishing culture cannot survive on deconstruction alone. Builders — artists, thinkers, and leaders who create bridges — must be elevated.
4. Renew Liberal Rituals and Symbols
Meaning must be felt as well as understood. Art, education, civic life, and celebration must make liberty feel sacred, beautiful, and alive…
5. Invest in Intergenerational Memory
Liberal values are not self-sustaining. They must be transmitted through stories, festivals, spaces, and living experiences that carry emotional weight.
Churchill’s gaze in the portrait at the London National Liberal Club still meets the eye with a challenge:
Will our generation rise to save liberalism while it is under siege — from enemies without, and from cynics and saboteurs within? Do we have the courage to save not only Western civilization, but the very idea of human civilization itself?
The defense of liberty has never been a passive task.
It demands strength, yes — but even more, it demands imagination, conviction, and the will to build what others only tear down.
The time to answer that call is now.