Jefferson Rights do not disappear suddenly and noticeably, but slowly and often subtly. The price of democracy is eternal vigilance, but not all people are vigilant all the time, and most are willing to see various freedoms erode and even disappear. Apathy permits one group that does not value a particular freedom to stand by and watch while it is taken away from another group that does value it. Out of Hate one group will actively try to oppress another and take away their rights. Out of Selfishness one group will infringe on another's rights for their own economic benefit.
Ignorance lets some people sleep while the rights they never knew they had slowly disappear.
Conceit describes the justification of the 'elite' to make decisions for the masses as a parent does for a child. Friedrich Hayek called this the 'fatal conceit' because of the impossibility for a bureaucracy, however smart and well-educated, to be better informed than the people collectively. Distrust of others' judgment and motivations makes us willing to give up our own freedom in order to restrict theirs. A democracy is measured by how it treats its minorities, but great energy and will are required to defend the rights of other groups with which you don't personally identify. The Holocaust was not an aberration, but is repeated all around us on a smaller scale every day.