Not everyone should need to ascend up the political ladder; it's important if we occaisionally get a Jesse Ventura or Ronald Reagan or John Glenn to shake things up.
Is it important for a President to have political experience? I'd argue yes (to some degree). But putting the same restriction on Governors and Senators is restricting us to a rigid farm system, which is a bad idea and creates a gap between the party's members and its elected officials.
That last part is pretty much exactly how the NY democratic party works, and it's the reason why no one other than Nixon is stepping up to challenge Cuomo. Most of the time, we don't even get to pick our candidates. Schumer was nominated by acclimation at a party convention and faced no challenger. He was elected, sure, but there was no real choice involved by the voters. So if we want to challenge an incumbent, it's almost universally going to be someone outside the NY dem establishment just because of how the state and the party works. If we want to challenge Cuomo, it's pretty much the only option we have. At least Nixon seems pretty passionate and intelligent.
