Because you can engage voters to change their minds in the USA, or indeed just engage politicians, whereas in Russia such activity can get you murdered, sent to prison (often a death sentence anyway) or exiled.
Look at things like SOPA where a large userbase was motivated to spread the word, tech companies got involved and the public were informed enough to convince politicians to change.
Will SOPA ever come back in a minimally modified form? It it really dead? Or will they just find another way to ram it through? Is there a real victory? Are the politicians now going to leave it well alone? Or will the media money eventually get its way?
Even here in Europe, referendums are routinely ignored. So, have a referendum on EU membership, and if its a result to leave, you get another referendum.... until we vote "correctly".
