MacDougall: The perils of being an 'absurd partisan clown'

Social media might be accelerating the decline of political discourse, as gets argued elsewhere on these pages, but one of its benefits as a political commentator is the tight connection it allows you to form with your audience.
Why, just the other day I received this bit of correspondence from a Twitter user who was worried about my well-being:
“You know that you’re coming across as an absurd partisan on this, right?”
Following a light bit of reassurance regarding my intellig