US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders addresses supporters during a campaign rally at Temple University, April 6, 2016, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sanders scored a crucial victory April 5, 2016 over Hillary Clinton in the US state of Wisconsin, throwing a road block in his Democratic rival's march toward the party's presidential nomination. / AFP / DOMINICK REUTER (Photo credit should read DOMINICK REUTER/AFP/Getty Images)

Wednesday night Senator Bernie Sanders made a path-breaking speech stating that Hillary Clinton is "not qualified" to be president of the United States. This is a major escalation in his attacks on the former Secretary of State in anticipation of the upcoming New York Democratic presidential primary. It is the first time that he has made her personal character a part of his campaign rhetoric -- in direct refutation of his promise to make this contest about issues rather than personal matters.

This is potential dynamite for the Democratic Party. For it may mean that if Senator Sanders does not get the Democratic presidential nomination next summer -- and he continues to argue that Secretary Clinton is disqualified from the presidency -- that he will take his large progressive following out of the Democratic Party and run as an independent next fall, figuring that he can win the presidency on his own by taking advantage of a split vote between a reactionary Republican candidate and a figure like Clinton whom, he believes, most people don't trust. But in doing so he will risk committing a Ralph Nader-type disruption that could bring about the election of a true reactionary in the person of Ted Cruz or the triumph of a reckless right-wing gambler like Donald Trump.

This thus may become a race about Sander's hurt feelings rather than about the country's stability and its progressive future and the continuation of the successful policies of President Obama. It is a potential act of folly that could have far-reaching adverse consequences for the nation for decades. We will have to see how this plays out. One still hopes that Sanders, as Clinton has already promised, will hold to his original position that he will agree to support the nominee of the Democratic Party no matter who that may be. But that is no longer assured.