Inch by inch vs. act like it’s an emergency because it is

I missed the FDL book salon with Naomi Wolf whilst I was lurching about being a bloviating zombie.  The book, of course, is her The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot.  
“ in Germany in the beginning — in a parliamentary democrachy — everyone was aware that each step was small, they adjusted, they adapted…until [...]