The concept of freedom is not a one-and-done thing, especially in practice.
Explanation:
Freedom is defined as the right to act, speak, or think as one wants without restraint. In theory, this should be straight forward. However, in addition to certain rights that American citizens receive (one of which being overarching "freedom"), people are raised being taught how to act and behave. This can be taught through political ideology, religious upbringing, and general moral standing (what's "good" and "bad"). Where freedom starts to get difficult is when people's morals get mixed up in it, and the idea that freedom for a certain group means infringing on other people's freedom.
One example - homosexuality, while legal in the United States, is still a very rocky issue. There are states where certain ideologies that believe homosexuality is wrong dominate, so much so to the point where they feel the need to suppress the freedom of homosexuals because it somehow impacts their own freedom. Almost like a pie, a large amount of people feel that freedom is a finite resource, and that by giving freedom to others somehow takes it away from themselves. This can be seen in the narratives of "the gay agenda" and wanting to "turn people gay", fearmongering tactics that people will use to try and villainize groups that do not share their beliefs.
There is also an unclear relationship for some that take freedom as a complete term - in action and reaction. Some people believe that freedom gives them protection from consequences, which isn't the case. In a state of "total freedom", people would have the right to perform horrible acts without consequences. In a more realistic expectation, what I'll call "practical freedom", people are "free" in the general sense of the word, however that freedom does not protect them from reaction in response. A murder will be met with consequences. This can go into a moral debate about exactly where the line is between total freedom and practical freedom, but we won't go into that.
tl;dr - America continues to struggle with the concept of freedom because of an unclear understanding of what practical/practicing freedom is, and how personal beliefs and ideologies impact how people view and tolerate the freedom of others.
