thinkprogress.org

the mere mention of allowing the president to be chosen according to the will of the people launched Republican state Sen. Mike Folmer into an unhinged rant about the Weimar Republic, the constitutional amendment process, eliminating the 50 states, and Adolf Hitler:

The changes to the Constitution should be and only be through the amendment process. If you don’t do it through the amendment process, then you are usurping the will of the people, and that’s my point. You’re right [the framers] weren’t saying the Constitution is closed. Do you know why the Weimar Republic failed, sir? And Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were able to take over? Because their constitution was closed, and Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were able to use their constitution on the German people and get the support of the German people that way, and they used the law against them. My point in this is this: if we go to a national popular vote, then we might as well get rid of the 50 individual states, we might as well get rid of it and go to a…

At this point in Folmer’s rant, he was cut off by the committee’s Republican chairman.