GUILD -GAD 30RE - Any feelings on the matter?

By the way... I apologize... I'm not a raving political lunatic... my rant here is mis-placed.

I guess I just feel that buying musical instruments from an oppressive communist country somehow goes against the fundamental believe systems of muscians.

Well you know, in America we have the best political system money can buy. It's not your money or my money but the money of the corporations that buys all the politicians and all the lawyers/lobbyists. Historically speaking we're talking about a system like back in the early days of industrialization where the industrialists ruled the earth and people/workers were afforded no protections health,wage,living wise. Child labor, dangerous low paying jobs and predatory companies made life hell if you didn't happen to be the rich folks you see in Masterpiece Theater. These days the flag waving Republican Party is owned by business, what used to be called the Rockafeller Republicans who sound like Goldwater Republicans are in charge. They'll wave the flags while outsourcing the jobs and telling us it's good for us. The people who lose their jobs are the people who used to be Democrat voters but became flag waving Republican voters. Of course Bill Clinton did the same thing, selling out the working class for 'free trade' so it's both parties. The result can be seen in 'free trade' with China which is and always has been (since after WWII) a communist country. Now Cuba, a communist country doesn't have teeming piles of cheap labor and a potential vast market for US Companies to sell their products so they are treated differently. The difference is economic and not political. The difference can be seen in President Bush automatically taking the side of a country in the Ports controversy over US security concerns. It's money and who has it to give that rules the world. The difference can be seen in the outcry over illegal immigration, most voters/people are against it but companies who like cheap labor are for it so you see how much is being done about it. It's who has the money, it's not you and I who have different concerns.

All this is immaterial to me when I'm in the store looking to buy a guitar. I will buy the best guitar for the best price that I can afford. I buy American when I can and for the political stuff, I do vote and I vote based on my understanding of politics and of what I think is good for my country. The fact that others vote based on who waves the flag better and based on a short term memory of who did what is a great sadness to me. And that's the name of that tune. :)