How tolerant are you of DUIs?

I have heard a lot about DUIs from Americans. It seems mostly dismissive, "just a DUI", "only has a history of DUIs", etc. After many years I finally decide to Google the term to find it means "Driving Under the Influence", aka Drink Driving in the UK. If you got a conviction for drink driving in the UK, that's it, you're done. Almost no employer will hire you, you're probably going to be homeless in a year and dead in two. But Americans seem to be chill with DUIs? Is this true or have I badly misunderstood what people are saying when they say "only a minor criminal record, a handful of DUIs..."