It’s been claimed that one reason for Donald Trump’s meteoric rise in the polls is due not to his knowledge on policy issues (on which he doesn’t seem to be particularly astute), but on his outside-the-Beltway status and his bold, no-holds-barred statements.

Another candidate is taking plain talk to the streets, but using his trademark soft-spoken approach to try to win the hearts of black urban voters.

Dr. Ben Carson walked and talked in Harlem, NY, to discuss how illegitimacy and lack of traditional values are leading to the destruction of the black community. He even quoted the late President Lyndon Johnson’s famous quip that “I’ll have those n*****s voting Democratic for the next 200 years.” Yes, he went there. In Harlem, no less.

He also challenged the Black Lives Matter activists, regarding them as creators of strife rather than solvers of problems.

“Of course black lives matter. But what I feel instead of people pointing fingers at each other and just creating strife, what we need to be talking about is how do we solve problems in the black community. Of murder, essentially.”

Here is Dr. Carson in action, in Harlem and on Fox News Channel’s The Kelly File:

On Wednesday, Carson also appeared on Fox News Channel’s Your World attacking Planned Parenthood and its history of eugenics, specifically through its founder, Margaret Sanger.

“Well, maybe I’m not objective when it comes to Planned Parenthood. But you know, I know who Margaret Sanger is, and I know that she believed in eugenics, and that she was not particularly enamored with black people. And one of the reasons that you find most of their clinics in black neighborhoods is so that you can find way to control that population. And I think people should go back and read about Margaret Sanger, who founded this place — a woman who Hillary Clinton by the say says she admires. Look and see what many people in Nazi Germany thought about her.”

Writer Janell Ross of the Washington Post, whose bio indicates she is a “reporter who writes about race, gender, immigration and inequality,” brushes off Dr. Carson’s remarks. She claims, “. . . when Carson speaks this way about race, social policy and economic disadvantage, it’s just what the Republican Party’s base wants to hear, but his ideas have quite limited appeal outside that base.”

Maybe that’s true for now. But it’s still early in the political season. Meanwhile, Dr. Ben Carson goes into urban communities and addresses the residents’ issues with both firm resolve and a quiet manner, devoid of hubris and ad hominem attacks. Well done, Dr. Carson.