Since living in France, I've been impressed by the French's sense of national pride. Fresh produce in the supermarkets is all local - veg, meat, dairy etc, in many cases the actual farm is named on the packaging. And nearly everyone has a French car (Peugeot, Citroen, Renault). The irony is that while in England, I'd go out of my way to AVOID French products (except wine!) now that's nearly all I buy!
I completely support the idea of buying local for nationalistic reasons AND to avoid indirectly supporting sick regimes (in England a while back the big one was South Africa - no one would buy stuff from there while aparteid was at it's worst!) If we all did our bit then coutries such as China and the middle Eastern countries would be forced to change. Re China - I don't want to be too graphic here but I once worked with a guy who'd visited Chinese orphanages when he was an aid worker - the stories he told of what he saw were enough to make me avoid Chinese products where possible.
There are also environmental issues - the more locally you can buy, the less impact you have on the planet in terms of carbon emmissions. The ideal is to home produce and I do as much as I can but I'm lucky that I have the land, the time and the knowledge. Not everyone has that option I know. But supprting local producers is the next best thing. :D
This is a great topic, BW, thanks for starting it!