"That as an impressive speech, you should check it out"

The fact that this is considered impressive shows just how poor most politicians and public figures are at communicating, and how desensitised we as the electorate have become. Looking only at the communications aspect of it, Mamdami is the bare minimum of what we should be expecting from our public representatives, rather than some sort of grand achievement.

That's not meant as a swipe at the OP, by the way. This is a general issue. Public speaking and proper debate are in dire straits in general.

Edited to fix typo.

In 2016 I was on a business trip to the US. I turned on the TV as background noise to accompany my packing for the return trip, and flicking through the channels I came upon Barack Obama giving the commencement address at Howard University. I stood, transfixed,, with tears in my eyes as he spoke. I had recently visited some US suppliers to our company, and I had been shocked at how they hated Obama, and loved Trump, who at that time had not yet been elected. I was thinking as I watched, regardless of political differences, or skin colour, how could you not be proud to have someone as your president who could give such a message of hope, with such self deprecating humour, all while imparting important messages. A few highlights:

And finally, change requires more than just speaking out -- it requires listening, as well.  In particular, it requires listening to those with whom you disagree, and being prepared to compromise. 

The point is, you need allies in a democracy.  That's just the way it is.  It can be frustrating and it can be slow.  But history teaches us that the alternative to democracy is always worse.  That's not just true in this country.  It’s not a black or white thing.  Go to any country where the give and take of democracy has been repealed by one-party rule, and I will show you a country that does not work. 

And democracy requires compromise, even when you are 100 percent right.  This is hard to explain sometimes.  You can be completely right, and you still are going to have to engage folks who disagree with you.  If you think that the only way forward is to be as uncompromising as possible, you will feel good about yourself, you will enjoy a certain moral purity, but you’re not going to get what you want.  And if you don’t get what you want long enough, you will eventually think the whole system is rigged.  And that will lead to more cynicism, and less participation, and a downward spiral of more injustice and more anger and more despair.  And that's never been the source of our progress.  That's how we cheat ourselves of progress.

So don’t try to shut folks out, don’t try to shut them down, no matter how much you might disagree with them.  There's been a trend around the country of trying to get colleges to disinvite speakers with a different point of view, or disrupt a politician’s rally.  Don’t do that -- no matter how ridiculous or offensive you might find the things that come out of their mouths.  Because as my grandmother used to tell me, every time a fool speaks, they are just advertising their own ignorance.  Let them talk.  Let them talk.  If you don’t, you just make them a victim, and then they can avoid accountability. 

Now it’s your turn.  And the good news is, you’re ready.  And when your journey seems too hard, and when you run into a chorus of cynics who tell you that you’re being foolish to keep believing or that you can’t do something, or that you should just give up, or you should just settle -- you might say to yourself a little phrase that I’ve found handy these last eight years:  Yes, we can.

I've just read it again and I'm in absolute bits. To see the contrast in just 10 years.

Full text here.

Hopefully I won't be accused of shilling or advertising😁!

The Mayor's speech (writer) stuck to a very well used formula of repetition. Like "I have a dream" repeated 8 times by Martin Luther King. The Mayor used the repitition of We Watched / We Waited. And then told the crowd how great New Yorkers are. Good politics, but he could have kept it short and to the point in 2 minutes.

https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/06/remarks-as-prepared--mayor-mamdani-hosts-and-delivers-remarks-at#:~:text=We%20waited%20without%20ever%20knowing,in%20New%20York%20City%20legend

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