John R. MacArthur speaks in Portsmouth

John MacArthur, publisher of Harper's Magazine, addressed a group of Preserve Portsmouth supporters and friends this evening at an event at the Green Valley Country club, and he spent much of his half-hour talk praising last year's successful grassroots effort to block Target from building a store on West Main Road.

"It was the interests of the many versus the interests of the few," said MacArthur, "In Portsmouth, at least for now, the many won." And it was not just a political victory, he went on to say, "What you have done together as neighbors and citizens has enhanced your humanity."

MacArthur was signing copies of his new book, You Can't Be President, which explores the barriers to real democracy in America, and features a chapter on Preserve Portsmouth. He talked about juxtaposing the machine politics of his native Chicago with the efforts of Conni Harding and the group she organized here in town.

"You are a very small exception to the rule," he told the group. He urged continued vigilance, as well as putting the fight against big boxes in a global perspective. Free trade agreements like NAFTA (the subject of one of his previous books) encourage a "race to the bottom" with "countries that have nothing to sell us but cheap labor."

"Unless we change the terms of the debate about free trade," said MacArthur, "There will be a lot more fights like this one."

MacArthur spent an hour in a lively discussion with the group. He said that one of the things that made the success of Preserve Portsmouth possible was that all three local papers — the Newport Daily News, the Sakonnet Times, and the Providence Journal, "did their jobs." He singled out Jill Rodrigues of the Sakonnet Times for her reporting. And, recognizing the shrinking coverage of print publications, he noted the importance of local bloggers. "Which is why John is so essential — he's replacing the papers," said MacArthur, pointing to this reporter.

What. You think I'm going to get a shout out from the publisher of Harper's and not run it?

The real divide in America now, he said, was not ideological, but between those with power and those without. MacArthur warned that the country was sliding into a "class-based society, not seen since the 1920s" with the real upper class now not directly economic, but rather a caste of politicians with the ability to raise money that comes with incumbency.

Given that, he said, the real question is what grassroots organizations do. "Does Conni Harding go into politics?" said MacArthur. "That's a question I can't answer. I've been around long enough to see what happens to reformers."

But he remained hopeful. "I don't know what's going to happen in the next four years," he said, noting Obama's roots as a community organizer, "It may be that local movements will be more in style."

And Conni and the Preserve Portsmouth folk are already hard at work on their next campaign, "Buy Local First Aquidneck," a collaboration with Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts Buy Local RI initiative.