You are--hopefully not deliberately--confusing loyalty to a party with adherence to a set of principles. I like to think these are not the same thing.

The current conflicts (some in both parties, BTW) indicates that a lot of people will not bury their principles out of loyalty to a party. This is not necessarily a bad thing in the long run, even if it loses some elections.

You really think McCain has been charting his own course against the stream of public opinion? With the single exception of his views on the war, what evidence do you have for this?

Nothing expresses hyperpartisanship more than to hate John McCain because he promises to put America ahead of all other considerations. To call John McCain a "traitor" is to reveal oneself as putting loyalty to a political party ahead of loyalty to America...to reveal oneself as a hyperpartisan.

Nobody with a brain is calling McCain a "traitor." And again, it's glaringly obvious that this isn't about loyalty to the Republican Party, which apparently loves the idea of McCain as "the one who can beat the Democrat," and doesn't give a rat's rump about the "base." If it was all about Republican loyalty, you wouldn't be hearing a peep about McCain, would you?

Again, you use the phrase "putting America above all other considerations." I told you that was meaningless without context. Many of McCain's positions are not necessarily good for America. If I am trying to fix an airplane, I do what will work to fix it. It doesn't matter if a mechanic loves that plane with every fiber of his being, and wants it to run well, if he's going to try and fix it by pouring sugar in the gas tank.

If you want a shorter version, your premise and your definition of partisanship here is completely wrong. Want to try again?