The Santa Barbara News-Press, December 10, 1992:

Joel Slater dismissed the United States and now he's paying the price.

He isn't a criminal or a draft dodger, just an outspoken footnote to the Reagan era.

Slater renounced his U.S. citizenship five years ago after American forces bombed Libya.

It was a passionate moment of free speech—almost an echo of the spirit that sent tea into Boston Harbor and fueled the American revolution, he said.

But dissent doesn't come cheap.

Since renouncing his citizenship in Australia in 1987, Slater has been deported by various countries four times.... He's now in Santa Barbara: Home to the man he blames for turning America mean and the vacation spot of his possible savior.

"This is Reagan's backyard, and I renounced my citizenship under Reagan," Slater said Wednesday. "Bill Clinton has a vacation home here, and maybe he can reinstate my citizenship with an executive order."

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