While I agree that cartograms beat standard maps for showing people-centric data, picking on FiveThirtyEight (which has done so much to de-obfuscate the American political system) seems a little silly.
> Maps could be a reason policymakers don’t focus on minority issues.
Well it could, but other factors (such racism as gerrymandering) play a definitive role in influencing policymakers and the constituents they answer to.
The other thing that goes unmentioned here is that congress works on both a representation by population (house of representatives) and a representation by state irrespective of population (Senate). In the case of issues the senate has a say in, every state has an equal say regardless of population so in that case it wouldn't be appropriate to size a visual by population.
It's a good rule of thumb that someone making a "could be" claim without even a little evidence or the scantest rationale is probably making a claim for which no evidence at all exists.
The US has a long history of racism, and minorities are, well, minorities in a majority-rules system. I don't think you have to look for maps as an excuse for the consequences of that.
> Maps could be a reason policymakers don’t focus on minority issues.
Well it could, but other factors (such racism as gerrymandering) play a definitive role in influencing policymakers and the constituents they answer to.