“And even before that in states like Illinois - just look at that ridiculous map and its squiggly lines, spider webs, etc.”
Illinois’ current congressional districts are commonly referred to as the “Strips of Bacon” districts. :-)
And if they aren’t referred to that way, they damn well should be. New York originally tried to screw Republicans as hard as possible, but since that plan failed to get court approval Illinois easily takes the “John Burton Award” (remember him?) as the gerrymander of the decade.
Of course that was before Virginia.
Here's that Louisiana map - there is no community, region, etc. that can possibly be represented by such a map - makes it difficult for both the congressman and the constituents to know for sure if they were even in this district. This is ridiculous. They will almost certainly have better, fairer representation with a redrawn map. Despite the false narrative, Republicans do not neglect the minority populations of their districts regarding constituency services. These people will be getting better constituency services.