From when exactly? Just because the GOP had a few truly exceptional people over a century ago doesn't mean they were good. 
 Since 1900, financial calamities occur whenever the GOP has extended control of Congress. TR was great in a lot of domestic policy areas, but the Republican, pro-business, anti regulation "philosophy" was there then and is still there today. TR's party considered him "a madman loose in the White House." But that was because his pro regulation and conservation policies (FDA for example). The financial panic of 1907 happened under extended GOP congressional control. From 1917 to 1929, the GOP held the Senate the entire time (and the house for much of it) From 1994 to 2006 The GOP held House and Senate except for 2001 when Jim Jeffords turned independent and caucused with the Democrats, In 2007, the shenanigans began. **TL:DR** Yes, I can claim the GOP was responsible for the Great Depression and claim that the really exceptional Republicans were more liberal than today's Democrats. Just because the GOP turned racist in the sixties doesn't mean it entirely changed. Unfortunately, it just kept the bad parts.