How do the Republicans want to be remembered? As part of the problem or part of the solution?
I was born in 1950 and lived through the Civil Rights era. The demographic of the Tea Parties is that of the KKK--mostly old white men who denied (to a man) that they were racist but were afraid of losing something which they could not name. They lost, but their fear remains, and thus, they reappear under another name.
Republicans in power need to decide how they will respond to a world changing rapidly around them and thus, how history will judge them. It will not be kind to those who oppose progress in the name of ghosts: those who did so in the 1960s and opposed the civil and voting rights bills worked hard to erase the memory of their self-serving, short-sighted obstruction. The Republican party is still working at it.
Of course, after it became obvious that these bills would pass, some Republicans joined Johnson and the Democrats in their passing, and yes, angry, fearful people voted some out of office. With this in mind, was the vote worth it? I would guess that all would answer in the affirmative.
History remembers only certain people, and I am not among them, but powerful people are. No matter what the consequences in the short term, we know that History rewards those with the foresight to adapt to change, the most pure certainty of the human condition, while it vilifies obstruction and willing blindness. How will the Republicans of today be remembered? It is up to them.