John Lofton is an American conservative political commentator and editor of The American View radio program run by Michael Peroutka. Lofton has also been a newspaper editor, a journalist, a columnist, and a political advisor. Describing himself as a "recovering Republican," Lofton is most closely allied with the Constitution Party.Lofton edited Monday, the weekly publication of the Republican National Committee, from 1970–1973. He later became a syndicated columnist for United Features Syndicate whose columns appeared in 100 newspapers from 1973–1980. He became a columnist for the Washington Times in 1982. During his seven years at the Washington Times, Lofton became nationally known in print and on the nascent cable news circuit.Lofton advised Pat Buchanan's Presidential campaign and was the Communications Director for the 2004 Michael Peroutka Presidential campaign.Lofton has made numerous appearances on political talk shows, including The Political Cesspool, Politically Incorrect, Scarborough Country, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He is well known for a 1986 appearance on Crossfire in which he debated musician Frank Zappa about the Parents Music Resource Center's campaign to identify music albums inappropriate for children, in which he argued that the founding fathers did not mean to include lyrics like Zappa's under the protection of the first amendment. He and Zappa argued while Zappa kept defending free speech, even if it implies taboo subject matter, whereupon Lofton called Zappa an idiot. Zappa then answered "How about you kiss my ass, how about that?". The Crossfire video went viral after freeform radio station WFMU posted about it on its widely read blog in early 2006.Lofton also interviewed Allen Ginsberg in 1990 for Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. The interview was subsequently reprinted in Harper's Magazine.