What would our history look like if another challenger to the two-party system, Abraham Lincoln, had been locked out of debates by the dominant parties of his time, the Democrats and the Whigs? The Republican Party was an upstart in a time of discontent, the successor to anti-slavery parties like the Liberty Party and the Free Soil Party. Lincoln led the anti-slavery Republican Party to victory against the strongly pro-slavery Democrats and the "lesser evil" Whigs. Later, the Equal Rights Party championed women's suffrage. Around the start of the 20th century, the Socialist Party and other progressive parties advanced major reforms we now take for granted, including Social Security, unemployment insurance, worker's compensation, food and drug regulations, the eight-hour workday, ending child labor and the direct election of U.S. senators.