Divided We Stand

Author: Dan Katz

 

There are seventeen links on the US map, each with three important pieces of data:

1) a corresponding state

2) an image, sound, or text file

3) the file name

 

The file names can be rearranged to form the first part of the 12th Amendment to the Constitution (using the numbered indices to order the two repeated words):

 

the electors shall meet in their respective states and1 vote by ballot for president1 and2 vice president2

 

This suggests that we should care about the number of electors from each state. Finally, we have the files, each of which clues a phrase of the form "American ______." Take the words that go in the blanks, order them by their filenames (in the amendment sentence) and take the Nth letter where N is the number of electors from that state.

 

the         Nebraska (5)      S - Bandstand ("Bandstand Boogie")

electors    Vermont (3)       O - Idol (Kelly Clarkson's "Miss Independent")

shall       Miss. (6)         L - Buffalo

meet        M. Mex. (5)       I - Wedding (the 3rd American Pie film)

in          Hawaii (4)        D - Maid (from The Tick)

their       Kansas (6)        O - Psycho

respective  Montana (3)       F - Hi-Fi ("Flavor of the Weak")

states      Louisiana (9)     R - Tourister

and1        Alaska (3)        E - Cheese (ingredients from Kraft singles)

vote        Idaho (4)         V - University (map excerpt)

by          Utah (5)          O - Juniors (God help us all)

ballot      S. Dakota (3)     L - Splendor (Harvey Pekar's comic)

for         Maine (4)         U - Beauty (Kevin Spacey re his new car)

president1  Wyoming (3)       T - Outlaws

and2        Nevada (5)        I - Gothic (Gary Cole as Lucas Buck)

vice        New Hamp. (4)     O - Idiot (by Green Day)

president2  Oklahoma (7)      N - Symphony (the piece played in the finale)

 

And thus the answer is SOLID OF REVOLUTION.