Word: downplay
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...primary winner's campaign has tried to downplay the differences between the two candidates, saying that Graham and Thompson would tend to vote the same way on most issues...
...John F. Kennedy School of Government" in print. Some say that when people at the Kennedy School are bored, they count the number of references to the school inserted into the Congressional Record. But if someone wants to write about the school's links to Dukakis, they try to downplay the whole thing...
Many such thinkers downplay the idea that Jesus was God, let alone a member of a complex theological partnership called the Trinity. They emphasize his human qualities, in the hope that believers might better identify with him. But will most people be inspired by this sort of Jesus, who is so different from the Christ of the New Testament, who has captivated artists and peasants alike over the centuries? Will they want to stake their lives on a person about whom so little is certain and who is only dimly divine...
...country, we are inclined to downplay differences, particularly when it comes to questions of class. Historians have shown that while the movement for temperance was framed as a national moral problem, it was in many ways a class phenomenon. And the resulting temperance laws amounted to an effort by the middle class to assert its hegemony...
...Jackson is to be just another beaten primary opponent, then Dukakis will likely downplay the requests, throwing the obligatory crumbs of respect to Jackson. But if Jackson is considered in light of the important role he has played--and the historic impact his campaign has had in Democratic politics--then Dukakis may take his opponent's demands more seriously...