I’m a foreigner so I ask this ignorant question with no malice intended: it is out of ignorance.
Can’t all of your Republican elected officials kind of corner McCain, shake him by the scruff of his neck, and tell him something like:
“Lookit, son: it is time for you to rejoin the fold. We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way. You are going to have a real easy time for your first term, and for your second term, if you do exactly as we tell you to do. Or you will have a miserable first term and no second term, with none of your programs voted for by us, if you play it cute with your Democrat buddies. Your choice, pal.”
Why wouldn’t *that* work?
McCain is far more conservative than most of his colleagues. Remember that he holds Goldwater's Senate seat. Now draw a straight line from Goldwater's time to the present on the major tenets of Goldwater's platform, small government, strong military judiciously used, and maximum personal freedom. McCain has wavered little from those straight lines and where he has it has been mainly on the conservative side when contrasted with Goldwaters libertarianism.
Why the howling? There are a handful of boutique issues, largely driven by the left but of concern to most Americans which he chose to take head on. The main one was campaign finance reform but there were others. The compromises he reached were less than doctrinaire conservative but they were popular enough to propel him into the Republican nomination.
During all those years that he was in the Senate fighting against spending and pork and earmarks, it was Republicans aligned with Democrats that he was fighting. Republicans had their faces buried to their ears in the trough but they could always wave a flag and a Bible come election time and they were returned again and again. Republicans can whine and moan about the knives in their backs from McCain but just look at the ones buried to the hilt in his back. Every one of them has a Republiccan brand on it.
The sad thing is I truly believe some(most?) of the “higher-ups” in the GOP AGREE with his views! It’s not like the GOP has been the standard-bearer for less government, and anti-socialist policies for a while now... I wish they could corner him, but I fear not one in a position to do so has the guts, nor even the desire to do it! (I hope I’m wrong, but fear I’m not).