France is certainly more conservative then the US now. Recently 100s of thousands of French demonstrated against gay marriage. You’d never see that here. Also there is a 12 week limit on abortion....
I think America, more than other countries, still thinks that the American people is in charge of its country, hence the docility.
It's a centralized system. If you don't like what the government is doing, you can stage a massive protest, and the government does it anyway, and you're finished. In the US, there's still a chance you can block something at the state level, so national protests will be fewer, but some states may manage to hold out against the changes the federal government wants.