>Our government is at least partly reactive to our votes

So is Iran's. Keep in mind the country is a theocratic Republic that turned out this way because of a popular religious revolt against a secular absolutist monarch. That bottom up, democratic, religious zealotry is something you also have in the US but virtually nowhere in the developed world.

So you're saying there is no religious zealotry in Europe?

What about the Christian Democratic Union of Germany which officially believes in Catholic Democracy and didn't recognize same-sex marriage until 2017?

Don't know what to tell you, man. The US is drastically more diverse than Iran, and as a result is not nearly as hegemonic. Also, the US is a lot more moderate in its views and policies than Iran. The US political party rhetoric is quite different than a lot of our policies actually are. Sure, much of the political right in the US leans puritanical, but, that leaning is a still more lip service to a small, vocal base than broadly representative of our population.