In a Politicususa article, the author cautions Sanders' supporters that Obama has said and history shows that incrementalism is the only way in which major changes take place.

Obama (sorry, I have quit calling him President Obama due to an overwhelming lack of respect for what he has done/not done in regard to whom he portrayed himself to be and don't get me started on his militarism) first gives voice to many of the current problems that Sanders has been addressing. He then completes the interview with the following:

We’ve got to also recognize that, in a democracy like this, it’s not going to happen overnight. We have to make incremental changes where we can, and everyone once in a while you’ll get a breakthrough and make the kind of big changes that are necessary. That consensus building is important because that’s historically how change has happened in America.

The author of this piece--as per current practice of not labeling opinion as Opinion--concludes that all progressive changes have come about by taking baby steps, including the Civil Rights movement and the minimum wage law (He is very wrong about that last, but more one that later.). There are a number of points here that need to be addressed.

Obama refers to "a democracy like this" which indicates that our system is not the standard breed of democracy but one that has been diluted or in essence is something else. Okay, that may be construed as picky, but then again there may be a more subtle message there. Given the history of the last 40 years, it is something to think about.

Next Obama states (and the author concurs) "it's not going to happen overnight." However, there are many, many instances when progressive change has happened in such short periods of time to in effect be "overnight." One example would be the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 to regulate the railroad industry which had become a monopoly. Around the mid-1870s, the public began to demand changes made in the discriminatory pricing practices of the railroads which states tried to address, but the Supreme Court intervened due to the interstate nature of the business. Eventually, through public pressure, the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 was passed and the Interstate Commerce Commission was created.

The act was passed in response to rising public concern with the growing power and wealth of corporations, particularly railroads, during the late nineteenth century. Source

This was a progressive change brought about by public demands. Yes, it took about 12 years to accomplish, but it is no where close to the decades that the author of the Politicususa piece indicates are needed for progressive changes to be made.

Another example is the Sherman Anti-Trust Act which was a progressive movement to address the development of monopolies. The invention of the trust occurred in 1882.

By 1888 public discontent was so strong that both political parties put anti-trust planks into their Presidential platforms. Legislative action was a foregone conclusion. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was passed by a 51 - 1 vote in the Senate on 8 April 1890 and by a unanimous vote of 242 - 0 by the House of Representatives on 20 June 1890. The bill was signed into law by President Benjamin Harrison on 2 July 1890. Source

Two years between the time that voters made their displeasure known until a law was passed to address it. Not overnight, but close enough in political years. To get closer to overnight, we only need to take a look at Wilson's and FDR's progressive agendas.

First take a look at the background and see if you can see ghosts from the past:

The Progressive movement was a turn-of-the-century political movement interested in furthering social and political reform, curbing political corruption caused by political machines, and limiting the political influence of large corporations. Although many Progressives saw U.S. power in a foreign arena as an opportunity to enact the Progressive domestic agenda overseas, and to improve foreign societies, others were concerned about the adverse effects of U.S. interventions and colonialism Source [emphasis added].

[Note: The article that the above quote come from is worth a read. It is short, but you may spend extra time wrapping your mind around the term "Republican Progressive." = ) ]

The Progressive Era lasted roughly from the 1890s to the 1920s and was a prelude to the New Deal of Roosevelt. So there isn't too much confusion, the Progressives of that era may not be readily recognized as such by today's progressive standard as they favored the entry into World War I and restrictions on immigration among other things. Prohibition was also a progressive action.

Woodrow Wilson, elected in 1912, pushed through a number of progressive laws:

When Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected President with a Democratic Congress in 1912 he implemented a series of Progressive policies in economics. In 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified, and a small income tax was imposed on high incomes. The Democrats lowered tariffs with the Underwood Tariff in 1913, though its effects were overwhelmed by the changes in trade caused by the World War that broke out in 1914. Wilson proved especially effective in mobilizing public opinion behind tariff changes by denouncing corporate lobbyists, addressing Congress in person in highly dramatic fashion, and staging an elaborate ceremony when he signed the bill into law.[82] Wilson helped end the long battles over the trusts with the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914. He managed to convince lawmakers on the issues of money and banking by the creation in 1913 of the Federal Reserve System, a complex business-government partnership that to this day dominates the financial world.

That is an awful lot of progress, including antitrust laws, state and national income taxes (16th Amendment), increased business regulation, direct election of U.S. senators (17th Amendment), and the creation of the Federal Reserve System in a very short time. Wilson, with the backing of the populace, had the will to make changes to the status quo.

Without the earlier progressivism, the New Deal may not have come into being. However,

There is general agreement that that the Era was over by 1932, especially since a majority of the remaining Progressives opposed the New Deal. Source

But that is not the concern of this essay. The thesis is that change does not need to take extensive amounts of time when there is a will for change. The Great Depression began in 1929. FDR took office in 1933. In his first 100 days, after four years of Herbert Hoover's "be patient" rhetoric, FDR accomplished the following and more.

• March 10, 1933: The Economy Act of 1933. Roosevelt, in sending this act to Congress, warned that if it did not pass, the country faced a billion dollar deficit. The act balanced the federal budget by cutting the salaries of government employees and cutting pensions to veterans by as much as 15 percent. It intended to reassure the deficit hawks that the new president was fiscally conservative. Although the act was heavily protested by left-leaning members of congress, it passed by an overwhelming margin.
• March 31, 1933: The Civilian Conservation Corps Reforestation Relief Act (ch. 17, 48 Stat. 22) established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as a means to combat unemployment and poverty.
• May 12, 1933: The Agricultural Adjustment Act (ch. 25, 48 Stat. 31) was part of a plan developed by Roosevelt's Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace, and was designed to protect American farmers from the uncertainties of the depression through subsidies and production controls. The act laid the frame for long-term government control in the planning of the agricultural sector. In 1936 the act was ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court because it taxed one group to pay for another. [Note: this Act was re-worded and put back into effect shortly after.]
• May 12, 1933: The Federal Emergency Relief Act (ch. 30, 48 Stat. 55) established the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) which develop public works projects to give work to the unemployed.
• May 18, 1933: The Tennessee Valley Authority Act (ch. 32, 48 Stat. 58) created the Tennessee Valley Authority to relieve the Tennessee Valley by a series of public works projects.
• June 5, 1933: The Securities Act of 1933 (ch. 38, 48 Stat. 74) established the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) as a way for the government to prevent a repeat of the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
• June 12, 1933: The Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 (ch. 89, 48 Stat. 162) was a follow up to the Glass–Steagall Act of 1932. Both acts sought to make banking safer and less prone to speculation. The 1933 act, however, established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Source

One hundred days may not be overnight but close enough when others are thinking in terms of decades. There were even more changes in the next session and over the years. But, some will say, FDR had Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate. That is true; however, FDR didn't fully rely on politicians to do what was needed. He formed a coalition that could and would serve the needs of the many, including social security, unemployment insurance and a minimum wage.

This is not unlike what Sanders has been calling for...everyone coming together to address the problems we face. Just "reaching across the aisle" will not produce the needed results, and, in fact, makes things worse, but that is the only solution that HRC can see. While she already has strings tied to four of the eleven constituencies, they are the four that do not have the interests of the 99% or a survivable earth at the center of their agenda.

Sanders nor most of the rest of us are looking for overnight changes, but the facts are that change does not need to take the decades that incrementalism would require. There are plenty of examples of when there is a consensus of the people and the will of the elected to get things done, those things will get done.

In the Politicususa article, Obama also states:

It’s important for us to not oversimplify how we’re going to bring about the kind of change we need.

What is incrementalism if it is not oversimplification? For those who cannot see the big picture, taking only one step at a time is all their scoped vision allows, but it not going to work when we need to take leaps and bounds on many issues. The things that respond best to incrementalism will happen in their own good time. Meanwhile, there are things that cannot wait and do not require us to do so.

The short version: Do not listen to the media, candidates and politicians who tell you that it cannot be done.

Now, let's quit hoping for change and go out and make those changes happen.