[noahth]

There is some value in geography-based representation! Idealistically, well, there's idealistic value. Cynically, considering that many members of Congress are capable of bringing pork-barrel projects to their home districts, it makes sense for voters that their representative is accountable to the district.

While the idea of decoupling representation from geography is an interesting one and it may seem appealing, in practice I would not be surprised at all to see this result in a rapid deterioration in the quality of representation for areas in which representatives do not live and a corresponding rise in legislative effectiveness for the areas housing the representatives.

Following this line of assumptions a little further, it's easy to understand why Congress is divided into components where representation is based on different geographical scales.