Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson told Newsmax on Monday he is concerned about what he sees as the rise of communism in the United States.

"A lot of people are just kind of sleeping and not recognizing what's going on in our country," Carson said on "Ed Henry The Big Take."

"This has been planned for a long time, taking over the school systems and teacher unions, inculcating communist thinking into our young people, changing the culture in America, denigrating our relationship with God. All of these things are preplanned," he said.

"People destroying their own future and don't even realize it, and it's really very sad. We need to really go on a campaign of education, because what Marxists always do is they dumb down the population, and then they change the history," Carson continued.

"We have a real issue on our hands right now, and people have to wake up. This is crunch time."

Carson said Americans should not normalize communism, arguing it could undermine the nation's political system.

"To normalize it is really treasonous at this time. And if we don't get people to think about this seriously, it'll be too late, because what they do when they get a little bit of power is they change the rules so that no one else can get power again," he said.

"I would much rather see us engage in conversation, educate people about the differences. The American people are smart enough to know what to do in that situation," Carson continued.

"Maybe we should stop being so selfish and think about what's going to happen to this country."

Carson said communists are "very ignorant people," not evil.

"They're misinformed people, and they believe that they know what's best not only for themselves, but for everybody else. That's where the problem comes in," he said.

"When they get power, they set themselves up as the God. That's why they're so anti-God," Carson continued.

"Are we going to let that happen? America, you got some serious thinking to do here," he said.

"People are the ones who will decide what happens to America."

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