Pennsylvania has been in the national news a lot lately for one very special reason: congressional district redrawing.

Now wait, before you close your tab, this is truly is very exciting news. You see, Pennsylvania, like many states, is heavily gerrymandered.

Gerrymandering is what happens when the party in power draws districts that are meant to limit the vote of the constituents that lean towards the opposing party in certain congressional districts, often by either packing the opposition-leaning voters into a single district or by splitting the opposition voters into several different districts where they are the minority (called cracking).

This means that the minority party ends up with less Congressional seats in the House of Representatives, and the majority party remains in power; therefore, the number of Republican representatives versus Democratic representatives may not (and usually does not) accurately reflect the voting demographics of a state.

This means that many people groups end up either misrepresented or underrepresented in the House of Representatives.

Now, both Republicans and Democrats are extremely guilty of doing this, but in this specific case, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was gerrymandered to favor Republicans 12 to 6 — despite the fact that Pennsylvania has about a 50-50 split between the parties due to being a swing state. Which is why the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently declared the gerrymandered map unconstitutional.

So, Pennsylvania had to redistrict before the 2018 election season, and the result was... well, see for yourself:

Isn’t it beautiful? It’s probably the most beautiful map I’ve ever seen... well, the most beautiful Congressional District map.

And despite what President Trump claims, Pennsylvania’s new map is not unfair to Republicans. While yes, Republican are predicted to lose some seats, they will still have the majority.

This new, beautiful congressional map was drawn by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. If anything, this new map is fairer than the old one.

No insane shapes meant to marginalize voters. And it’s nonpartisan, so it more accurately represents Pennsylvania’s voting demographics than this heinously gerrymandered, Republican drawn map ever did:

Is District 12 supposed to be a crudely drawn hammer? And what the heck is up with District 16’s little enclave between 6 and 7? The old map looks like they handed a four-year-old a pen and a map of Pennsylvania and said, “Just draw some random shapes.”

Of course, because the Republicans are predicted to lose seats with the new map in the midterms, they obviously tried to get the Supreme Court of the United States to block it. But SCOTUS wasn’t having it.

The new, amazingly glorious congressional district map is officially in effect for the 2018 midterms. And while the Republicans will still probably carry the state, the Democrats are predicted to pick up a few seats and narrow the representative gap between the two parties, more accurately reflecting how people in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vote.

This is how congressional districting should be: fair and nonpartisan. This ensures that people are more equally represented. When a state is gerrymandered, votes are suppressed. People don’t get the representation that they need, and our democracy is weakened.

Every state (except for those that only have one representative like Alaska and Wyoming) will be redistricted in 2021, after the 2020 census is taken. This will have a major impact on all US citizens for the next decade.

That is why all states need to follow Pennsylvania’s example and not let either party draw the districts, otherwise, there will be gerrymandering like crazy from both sides.

We need to reduce the amount of gerrymandering that happens in order to have a fair democracy that represents the diverse people of the United States. That is why Congressional redistricting should be nonpartisan, that way people aren’t getting marginalized because politicians only care about keeping power. When Congressional redistricting is nonpartisan, you get a beautiful map like Pennsylvania’s.

Is it perfect? Probably not.

Is it fair? More so than a Republican-drawn map.

Pennsylvania’s new map doesn’t completely solve the gerrymandering problem in the United States, but it’s a start — which is why it is absolutely amazing. And until someone can provide legitimate, plausible evidence that Pennsylvania’s new map is unfair to voters, nothing will convince me that this new map shouldn’t be the model for future redistricting.