I saw this map on James Fallows blog a few days ago but it keeps getting reposted elsewhere. It’s pretty interesting, really. The idea is to divide the US into 50 states, keeping population even between the states and trying to preserve boundaries where possible (Note that Missouri looks pretty much the same, and so does Washington).

Matthew Yglesias noted while looking at the map that it would turn a lot of blue states red and a lot of red states blue.

I think the idea of redrawing state borders is a fun thought-experiment. For example, what if western Washington and Oregon became one state and eastern Washington and Oregon became another state? In terms of culture, economy, and politics, the resulting states would both be much more homogeneous than they are now.

Of course, there’s a real benefit to heterogeneous political bodies, so that’s not necessarily a good thing, but it’s still a fun thought experiment to play, as is the map above.