The Wall Street protests have "plucked the chords of the zeitgeist," as writer Jay McInerney once put it.

They're growing, and spreading, and they're now getting attention and endorsement from people who ignored them in the beginning.

But one thing that has held the protest movement back so far is the lack of a clear, compelling message.

The protesters have ranted about "corporations," but have failed to specify exactly what it is that they're upset about. The alternative to "corporations" is communism, and that doesn't work well, either. And targeting ire at something as vague as "corporations," which employ more than 100 million Americans and pay for everything else, leaves the protesters open to easy mockery.

Finally, however, someone has crystallized what the protesters are so upset about—and silenced a critic in the process.

Check out this exchange between former Florida Representative Alan Grayson (D) and P.J. O'Rourke on Real Time With Bill Maher. (Screenshots and annotation by @PopeShakey)