It’s been an interesting few weeks in the U.S. presidential race, as underdogs Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich both climbed in the polls. By and large, the mainstream media has already written both of these guys off – Paul is a “fruitcake” while Kucinich is a “nutty UFO watcher.”

According to the MSM, their chances of taking the White House are slim to you-must-be-joking. While I’m not a huge fan of either candidate, I think discounting these outsiders this early is a mistake, because these kinds of contenders have risen to power before in other advanced societies, and will almost certainly rise in the U.S. in the future, maybe as soon as 2008.

One of the main themes of The Pirate’s Dilemma is how people can take back power by jamming the mainstream signal. Today nearly 70% of households in the U.S. have broadband, which is roughly the same amount, or slightly more than the number of households that had broadband in South Korea in 2002; the year a grass roots candidate, who nobody thought had a chance, won the South Korean presidential election.

When Roh Moo-hyun ran in the 2002 presidential race, many Koreans thought he was joking. He was from a poor family, had no political connections, was too young and way too left wing. He was supported by just one congressman, while most of Korea’s conservative newspapers ignored him completely. But Roh Moo-hyun spoke to many young South Koreans, disillusioned with dirty politics and sick of corruption, who helped him build a strong grassroots campaign online. Without the aid of the mainstream political and media players backing him, Roh Moo-hyun emerged victorious.

Moo-hyun’s presidency wasn’t the greatest ever, but the point is that he got to have one. Moo-hyun had five things going for him in South Korea that allowed a grassroots contender like him to take the presidency. Broadband was the most important, and we have that, but do we now have those four other conditions here in the United States? For a grass roots candidate to pull a Moo-hyun here in the US, we need:

1. A large group of disillusioned young people sick of corporate corruption.

Check.

2. A pessimistic population in general, that believes the nation is headed in the wrong direction, willing to vote for an outside candidate they feel could get America back on course.

Check.

3. No real mainstream opposition.

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4. Dismal economic conditions (that are going to get even worse).

Check

Mix this much discontent together with 70% broadband penetration, and suddenly the “underdogs” seem a lot more threatening.