“Term limits” is not the answer.

I totally agree. Imagine how much harm a term limited senator could cause knowing that he/she would never be accountable again to voters.

"Independently drawn maps yields more productive incumbents"

Individuals elected to public office should attempt to represent the goals of their district constituents instead of catering to a political party.

"But an independent commission digs into these nuances and figures out ways to draw lines that find those things of common interest, while also meeting constitutional requirements, such as not drawing lines that discriminate against race."

Since political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution the Supreme Court defers to the states for political party gerrymandering resolution.

"So, Joe. Republicans in the senate are never going to support HR1, just as Democrats objected to California’s plan, so they’re going to filibuster it."

The problem with HR1 is it contains too many controversial issue resolutions that the Republicans can use to oppose it. If a bill was submitted that was limited in scope to elimination of gerrymandering then Republicans would be forced to either support the bill or admit that they are willing to cheat to win.