The good-government cause for the end of the decade should be to take redistricting out of the hands of the politicians and bequeath this democracy-determining power to impartial commissions.There is no such thing as a completely impartial commission when there is so much power and money at stake. To pretend that there is is breathtakingly naive.
True, but redistricting could just as easily be done by a computer program, with the rules agreed to ahead of time. But that would spoil all the fun of the state legislatures. It might be their only true function as things become increasinginly federalized.
If I made the rules they would be simple. No condiseration given to race or ethnicity, and the districts to be as geographically "connected" or compact as possible. I could probably even write the thing, given a bit of time and money. And if I couldn't, other folks at my workplace certainly could.