In the immortal words of Mister Senor Love Daddy, “Yo! Hold up! Time out! TIME OUT! Y’all take a chill!” Considering Samuel L. Jackson plays Senor Love Daddy in Spike Lee’s film “Do the Right Thing,” we should probably pay attention. It’s Samuel L. Jackson, for crying out loud.

That said, when it comes to health care, it seems some people are convinced that our country has damned itself to fall, destined down the evil road of socialism or communism. They are already declaring this midterm election will be a referendum on health care reform. Sadly, they would be wrong.

For one, it’s just wrong to declare unilaterally that Americans are opposed to health care. As the latest Gallup polls indicate (http://www.gallup.com/poll/126929/Slim-Margin-Americans-Support-Healthcare-Bill-Passage.aspx), 49 percent of Americans think the reform is a good thing; only 40 percent are against the new legislation. Predictably, it splits along party lines. But even with the standard margins of error, those in favor of the health care reform edge out the dissenters by four percent. If this is an overwhelming opposition to a law, either the values of numbers have suddenly rearranged themselves or we are lousy at interpreting simple data.

And if people honestly think the legislation is the harbinger of socialized medicine and communism, then they probably haven’t seen what the bill actually does. One can look here (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/your-money/health-insurance/22consumer.html?hpw) and then pass judgment. If this is communism, then I am the Dalai Lama. For the deficit hawks, who worry America will suddenly find it has dug a debt hole so deep it reaches China (which, oddly enough, it already has — in a way), I’m sure that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s report saying the health care reform should reduce the deficit by $130 billion for the first ten years and $1.2 TRILLION over the second ten years is little more than an indication that Joe McCarthy was right 60 years ago: the Reds have taken over.

And for those who want “bipartisanship,” was there any real effort by BOTH sides at creating a bill that was actually bipartisan? Yes, it’s true that not one Republican in Congress voted for the health care legislation – but did any of them actually try to make a good faith effort to do more than scream about death panels, baby killers and socialized medicine? The Democrats tried to reach out, but Republicans seem obstinate in believing “bipartisanship” to mean “Democrats give us what we want while we never give them anything.” Real collaborative stuff there, no?

But moreover, people who fret over this bill miss the simple fact of the American political memory and the realities of our current situation. Our economy still has not recovered. We still need to figure out how to prevent another financial meltdown like the one responsible for the Great Recession. Congress needs to figure out what it’s going to do on the global warming/climate change issue. And oh yeah, did I mention the economy and how unemployment is still ridiculously high at 9.7 percent?

So for the sake of everyone’s sanity, let’s all just calm down before we start screaming about health care reform and another Congressional revolution. Election Day is a little more than seven months away. Do we really think arguing about the not-socialist health care reform is going to be the least of our problems during that time?