5 Things I didn't know about political parties

I would never consider myself to be a person that knows a lot about political parties or platforms. I usually just associate the parties with major issues such as abortion or gay marriage. However in doing some research there were some facts I discovered that I find to be very interesting. I found it very interesting to find out that the Republican Party was founded by opposition to slavery, I knew that their party was against slavery just not that they were founded based on opposition to it. I was also not aware that the Republican Party wanted to restrict the role and power of judges. I was not aware that the Democratic Party played a large role in women being able to vote. I was also not aware that a Democratic president signed an important document that ended discrimination against minorities and women, I find this ironic being that the Republic Party was founded in opposition to slavery. I was also completely unaware to the values of the Socialist party, I did not know that it was basically founded to have the working class fight against the ruling party to lead to "real democracy".