You haven't followed some of the news from the health care debate and pressure on family services from the government. The rule making would not be described as "appeasement".
People don't see how much groups like Catholic Family Services or ELCA help in a lot of places the government has ignored. They don't advertise how much they do.
There's a major difference between pandering and appeasement, I think. I'm not American but my perception is more that politicians pander to religious groups to sway large voting blocks, not with any actual intention of treating religious bodies with any future political reward.
Appeasement is the policy we've adopted towards trying to keep Israel and the Islamic countries from fighting. Do you remember the shitstorm at the DNC when they forgot to put "and Jeruselem shall be the capital of Israel" on the platform? What is that if not appeasement?
Pandering is the usual "Israel is one of our greatest allies" lip service. Changing the DNC platform is something, impliedly promising to use the power of the US to protect Israel's interests goes beyond that.
