During an interview with CNN last night, presidential frontrunner Ron Paul explained how the establishment is finding it more and more difficult to portray his ideas as “extreme,” pointing out how his viewpoints are becoming part of mainstream thinking as the real “extremists” in charge continue to follow the same course even as America’s economy crumbles.

Asked why the media obsessed about Michele Bachmann while ignoring Ron Paul completely despite the fact that Paul almost beat her in the Ames straw poll, the Congressman said that the establishment was running scared.

“They’re afraid of me, they don’t want my views out there, they’re too dangerous, we want freedom and we’re challenging the status quo, we want to end the war, we want a gold standard, and their view is that people just can’t handle all this freedom, they want dependency, they want socialism and welfarism, so I think they don’t like to hear our views, but I think we’ll make the best of it and we’ll do very well,” he said.

Paul responded to host Piers Morgan’s assertion that Democrats were hyping Paul’s campaign as a means of dividing Republicans in order to pave the way for an Obama victory by pointing out that polls show he would have the best chance out of all the candidates of defeating Obama in a head to head race.

“I would slash into Obama’s civil libertarian viewpoints, he doesn’t really follow through on belief in personal liberties and he does not support ending the wars, he expanded the wars….so I think the establishment doesn’t want the status quo challenged and would be very opposed to me,” said Paul, adding that the leadership of both parties are in full support of continuing the wars and the Federal Reserve.

A May CNN poll found that Paul trailed Obama by seven points in a hypothetical run-off, with other so-called Republican “frontrunners” further behind. Given the fact that the media would be forced to give Paul some kind of a platform if he won the nomination instead of their current tactic of completely ignoring him, a seven point gap is nothing given that Obama’s approval ratings are slipping every week.

Morgan then attempted to imply that Paul was an extremist because he refused to subvert his principles on issues such as foreign aid, drug legalization, tax increases and abortion in order to make himself “more electable”.

“Why should someone soften their viewpoint on defending the rule of law and defending the constitution, it would be foolish,” responded Paul.

“The extremists are in charge, they’ve been in charge for the last 40 years since they’ve been allowed to print money at will….this year our entitlements in debt has obligated our people to $5 trillion dollars, and they think I’m extreme? I mean this is weird,” exclaimed the Congressman, explaining that his views were now becoming mainstream as America’s economy crumbles even as those in charge continue to repeat the same steps that caused the collapse in the first place.

Watch this hilarious Daily Show piece below in which host Jon Stewart rips into the establishment media for ignoring Ron Paul.