For the last few months, Americans who still have a sense of humor have been amused by the video postings of eight-year-old Ava Martinez. The child actress, who did parodies of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), garnered millions of views on social media. Apparently this was too much for some members of the oh-so tolerant Left. Last Wednesday, the Martinez family announced that due to death threats, Ava would no longer be impersonating AOC, and that all the existing videos would be taken down. “The Left’s Harassment and death threats have gone too far for our family,” Ava’s stepfather, Salvatore Schachter, tweeted. “We have been getting calls on our personal phone numbers. For our safety and for our child’s safety, we deleted all Mini AOC accounts.”

Schachter further revealed that when Ava’s parodies were posted online, the comments they received were “increasingly personal, dark, and dangerous.” He added, “She’s disappointed at not doing Mini AOC going forward, but we explained that this is for the best and she’s okay with it.”

Is America okay with it? Since when is a media-anointed, self-aggrandizing politician wholly immune from the consequences of her self-inflicted inanity? This kid was spot on, right down the interspersion of the word “like” within many of AOC’s pompous assertions.

A video of Ava addressing the AOC-promoted Green New Deal is a classic example. “Like, I want to talk about, like, climate change. Because, like, there’s no doubt cow farts are making the climate change,” Ava states. “Like, in July, the climate was 96 degrees and in February the climate was 36 degrees. OMG, like that’s a huge change in the climate in only” — she pauses to count her fingers — “four months! At this rate, the world is going to end in exactly 12 years.”

How did this all get started? Schachter thought his step-daughter bore a resemblance to the New York congresswoman, and when other family members began referring to her as “Little AOC” he asked her if she wanted to do a video. “She loves acting,” he stated last April, adding that that she and her brother posted their own videos to YouTube. “She’s just a natural performer.”

The public apparently agreed. When Schachter posted the Green New Deal parody at his @SickenLaw twitter site, it initially received a whopping 450,000 views and thousands of shares. “I thought it would gain attention, because she’s adorable, but not like this,” he marveled.

Schachter noted that Ava didn’t know who AOC was when she began making the videos, but it didn’t take long for her to nail the part. And when the youngster wears red lipstick and dons glasses similar to AOC’s, her resemblance to the congresswoman is impossible to miss.

Last May, Ava appeared on Fox Business to discuss her impersonations, revealing her dad and her uncle encouraged her to start making videos for exactly that reason. “They thought I looked like her,” she told host Stuart Varney, “so they said I should start making videos teasing her.”

Even then, the rumblings of leftist disdain were becoming apparent. Newsweek columnist Ben Fearnow referred to Ava as “the darling of conservative news outlets,” and further insisted her teasing was “at Ocasio-Cortez’s expense” and that the “jokes appear to be somewhat scripted, and there are on-camera clues that the 8-year-old California girl is having plenty of input from her relatives.”

Fearnow added disapprovingly, “Her Instagram and Twitter accounts both appear to be operated by her mother, and the account follows an overwhelming number of Fox News handles.”

So what? Like so many leftists, Fearnow apparently believes appearing on Fox, or having an affinity for its programming, is somehow delegitimizing. “Faux News” is the typically derisive term leftists apply to the network, which, no doubt to their chagrin, has just marked its 70th consecutive quarter as the most-watched cable news network among total day and primetime viewers.

Moreover it’s no secret Ava’s parents were involved in her now-aborted career. In an interview with the Gateway Pundit published on May 13, Schachter explained Ava’s videos were “very much so a family effort.” He explained, “I write the skits and Ava’s mom, who has a great sense of humor, directs the skits and helps write them while my brother adds some punchlines as well. Ava will improvise some of the lines, interjecting and removing some to make them her own, and it comes out much better than how it’s originally written. Ava’s brothers and sister help her rehearse and enjoy watching her perform.”

And who’s kidding whom? AOC is a “target-rich” persona. In a November 2018 Facebook posting, she asked her supporters to help Democrats take back “all three chambers of Congress,” before further “clarifying” that she meant the “presidency, the Senate and the House.” Hopefully by now she knows there are three branches of government, and only two chambers of Congress.

Regardless, Schachter and company couldn’t resist. “I’m going to talk about like the three branches of the U.S. government: The Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria,” Ava joked, while holding up four fingers in yet another hilarious video.

That was then. Today her Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube accounts have been shut down, and columnist Monica Showalter believes it’s no coincidence. She surmises a comment made by Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) last week advocating for the arrest and prosecution of “people who are online making fun of members of Congress” holds the key to understanding what’s really going on here.

As Showalter explains, Wilson is an “unusually close ally of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” and she wonders if the death threats and doxxings might have originated with some member of either politician’s political machines. “It would be useful to know who did them,” Showalter adds. “In fact, since it’s a crime involving a child, it probably ought to be investigated as a crime.”

Showalter shouldn’t hold her breath. When Wilson can call for the evisceration of the First Amendment — without a peep of blowback from her fellow Democrats — one might conclude that many party members harbor the same inclinations. Moreover, the very same Democrats, including AOC, who rail about the “hate” directed at illegal-alien children have no interest in protecting an American kid who isn’t cannon fodder for the progressive cause.

“At a minimum, we can surmise that congressional leftists are really very angry at anyone making fun of them, even a little kid,” Showalter adds. “It’s important to note that Mini-Ocasio-Cortez was very very effective at her ridicule of Ocasio-Cortez and every leftist knows Saul Alinsky’s dictum that ridicule is a powerful tool.”

Schachter has a parting message for this who threatening his step-daughter. “The world has seen Ava’s beauty, talent, and charm, which was the whole reason for Mini AOC to begin with and no amount of hate or anger will change that,” he told Fox News. “Also, like Ava says, ‘Try using your words.’”

Here’s a better message for those who would threaten to kill a child because they can’t handle what she says: When you’re afraid of an eight-year-old, you’ve reached the bottom of the fascist barrel.