But it's an issue that deserves far more of a mention than "most people have never heard of this."
The issue has its roots in the wave of deregulation that began in the Carter years and was applied wholesale under Reagan. The removal of safety protections meant that corporations were being hit by lawsuits, and they hated it. So instead of minding their manners, they adopted a policy of making it difficult for anyone to sue them.
Karl Rove got George W. Bush elected as Texas governor by running him on a campaign of tort reform -- which was an issue that could appeal to moneyed interests but could also be pitched to ordinary voters as a matter of simple fairness. (The whole "why should one person get millions of dollars for being injured by a corporation" argument.)
In the late 90s, the US Chamber of Commerce also picked up on the issue of "lawsuit abuse." It let them solicit donations from major corporations rather than depending on their membership as a whole. And they pumped massive amounts of money into state judicial elections, generally through front groups, to get pro-business, anti-consumer judges elected.
There have also been successful efforts to demonize trial lawyers, particularly those who were major donors to the Democratic Party, and even to convict them on trumped-up corruption charges.
And as the video suggests, we're also witnessing ongoing efforts through the courts to prevent unions from supporting Democratic candidates -- and the overall effect has been to force the Democrats to become as dependent on the corporations as the Republicans are. The GOP may not have secured a Permanent Republican Majority as it hoped twenty years ago -- but it has forced this country to become far more plutocratic.
And that may be the real significance of Bernie's candidacy. It shows that huge amounts of money can be raised through small grassroots donations. And also that a bunch of tech-savvy Millennials can conduct as good a ground game as Clinton's hired guns.
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