GOP presidential hopeful Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) sees more and more American voters aligning with his views, which many brushed aside during his previous campaign in 2008.

Paul acknowledged that during his last presidential run, many of his political opponents and voters “laughed at” his stances on foreign and monetary policies.

{mosads}“During the last campaign, I knew what was happening,” Paul said during a Sunday morning appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“You know, they mocked me for my foreign policy and they laughed at my monetary policy,” the Texan said. “No more. No more. The people coming over here.”

Since then, however, the Tea Party Movement has been born. It fueled Republicans’ 2010 takeover of the House and is already shaping the 2012 GOP presidential nomination fight.

“The attitude toward the endless undeclared silly wars that we fight that are bankrupting us,” Paul said. “The silliness of the Federal Reserve printing money when we need so-called wealth, the deficit’s that are uncontrolled.

“So the mainstream is now thinking about these things. Before mainstream was: deficits don’t matter, print money when you need it, endless wars, personal privacy that didn’t mean anything,” he said. “But believe me, mainstream is moving in the direction that I have been talking about for a long time, and therefore nobody knows what the outcome will be in this election.

The bottom line, Paul said, is: “The people have woke up.”