Fair enough, but what kept him from choosing a conservative in 1984? Loyalty is one thing, but it is trumped by the best interests of the nation....
Political reality is what prevented him.
1. The same RINO power interests that compelled him to select Bush were still there in 1984 and Reagan still needed their co-operation. Plus, Reagan WAS the President and Bush only the VP. VP's are constrained to publicly support their President, and Presidents have the final word. Bush could do much less mischief as VP than he could have as a disgruntled vocal critic from outside. Finally, as I noted in my prior post, Reagan possessed sufficient political skill and charisma to work around most of their efforts to contain him. In short, he "handled" them better than they handled him.
2. Bush was a popular Vice-President who was viewed very favorably by the American public. The good will of the public towards Reagan extended by default to his Vice-President. The general public was not at all aware of the internal power issues we're discussing here. Bush never did anything publicly which Reagan could have used as a justification to replace him without opening up an even worse can of worms.
3. George and Barbara Bush are, individually and personally, nice people. The Reagans developed a good degree of genuine friendship with them, which also enabled Reagan to deal effectively with whatever efforts Bush may have made to deflect his agenda.
Bottom line is that, in a popular administration in which the President and Vice-President are both widely respected, dumping that Vice-President, absent some egregious malfeasance on his part, would be political suicide.