Capitol riot, impeachment 2.0 ... what future awaits?

One of the most striking of many images seen during the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol and police officers there was the photo of Kevin Seefried of Delaware carrying a large Confederate battle flag inside the seat of our national government. He was arrested Thursday in Delaware along with his son, Hunter Seefried, by FBI agents.

The elder Seefried eventually will have to answer for the charges lodged by prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia: Unlawfully entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and degradation of government property.

Others, from a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel to a retired Pennsylvania firefighter to a public school counselor, have been tracked down, arrested by federal authorities, and charged for their actions on Jan. 6, too — the worst storming of the Capitol since the war of 1812. Hundreds more are likely to face charges as well, some for sedition and murder of a Capitol Police officer, in the coming days and weeks as more Capitol rioters, egged on hours earlier by President Donald Trump and others, are identified with the help of the technology they were so eager to use that cloudy afternoon in Washington, D.C.: Social media.

But Kevin Seefried’s photo, with the flag symbolizing white supremacy and the Cult of the Lost Cause, is the one image that most often surfaces in my mind when I think back on that fateful Wednesday, when it seemed for a time that America was no longer the leader of the free world and chief advocate for democracy across the globe.

And no, not when a young man turned to a video camera in a Capitol corridor and yelled in a spasm of anger, “We built this place!” (when, in fact, it was largely built by enslaved Black men in the 19th century).

And no, not as signs and Tshirts could be seen referring to the QA non conspiracy theory that the country is dominated by deep-state bureaucrats and pedophiles.

And no, not as still another rioter could be seen wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” T-shirt with other lettering below that name of the notorious World War II Nazi death camp: “Work Brings Freedom,” an apparent reference to the German saying “Arbeit macht frei,” a sign atop the main entrance to many Nazi death camps and the Dachau death camp that I saw just a few miles from my north Munich home when I was a junior in high school, just two decades after the end of the war.

The man who wore that Tshirt reportedly has been identified as Robert Keith Packer, 56, of Newport News, Va., and law enforcement officers later arrested him on Jan. 13.

Then there were the Proud Boys who, as they marched toward the Capitol, stopped to kneel in the street and prayed in the name of Jesus. The group, whose members have espoused misogynistic and antiimmigrant views, reportedly prayed for God to bring “reformation and revival” and for “the restoration of their value systems” and later invoked divine protection for what was about to happen.

The symbols and signs of Christianity — “Jesus 2020,” “Jesus Is My Savior, Trump Is My President” — were clearly a part of the rally, as photos and camera footage show, emblems arguably of a blending of cultural references and white evangelical power stemming from a virtually all-white crowd.

Earlier this month, I was both surprised and not-so-surprised to read a report about far-right extremism among German soldiers, police officers and intelligence agents, some 1,400 cases, in the last several years. One report included details about far-right online chat groups and a special forces company’s sergeant major who had stashed explosives, a machine gun, and SS memorabilia at his home.

Reading the story summoned memories of my meeting and knowing racists and white supremacists during my U.S.

Army stint in the late 1960s and early ’70s. In fact, the most racist person I have ever met served with me for about nine months — a young, heavy-set man from Maryland who made no secret of his beliefs and attitude.

Now come U.S. Justice Department reports that activeduty military and police personnel took part in the Capitol rampage. Additionally, dozens of people on a terrorist watch list were found to be in Washington, D.C., for pro-Trump events.

Thankfully, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, concerned that members of the military may have taken part in the attack, issued a report last week that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. would be their new commander in chief on Jan. 20 and they were duty-bound to defend the Constitution.

Today I am thinking or remarks made by former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who, in 2017, at Gallier Hall, referring to his city’s removal of Confederate statues, that his city’s people could show the world they could “acknowledge, understand, reconcile, and most importantly, choose a better future for ourselves, making straight what has been crooked and making right what was wrong.”

“Otherwise,” he added, “We will continue to pay a price with discord, with division, and, yes, with violence.”

It seemed for a time on that cloudy day that America was no longer the leader of the free world and chief advocate for democracy across the globe.