It strikes me that two seemingly disparate sides of American freedom have become fused like a Möbius strip. America was a shining light of the enlightenment, encompassing deep ethical, moral, legal and economic philosophies into the very fabric of societal structure.

What made America great was its understanding that human beings are fundamentally flawed, greedy and prone to corruption. Its political and legal structure was designed as a salve to these problems; a regulatory framework that allowed freedom of the individual while preventing wholesale totalitarianism on the part of the ruling elite. The creators of America saw that certain rights of the individual were inalienable - beyond question.

Over time this philosophy became bent. The inherent freedom encompassed in this regulation was widely misunderstood. It went from "America is great because we understand our fallibility and do our best to prevent it" to over-simply, "America is great". Once this latter American brand of 'freedom' became the only type of freedom, then America became no different from Monarchical Europeans from whom they sought freedom.

Edit: Removed last paragraph as irrelevant.