This seems sudden, I know, but remember that adoring tributes to young left-wing political stars don’t require any actual achievement to justify them. Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize after nine months in office.

For nuclear nonproliferation, for fark’s sake.

Ocasio-Cortez is probably already a shortlister for next year’s prize for having farted out that never-in-a-million-years Green New Deal proposal, which even some lefties consider so unrealistic that it risks doing more harm than good to progressives long-term.

For now, though, she’ll have to make do with more prosaic honors.

“I was so moved by her being sworn in in January,” [artist Lexi] Bella told The Post. “It was such an incredible David & Goliath story when she beat [Rep. Joe] Crowley in the primary battle, and I think she actually embodies the kind of politician that the people who built this country intended.”…

“I’m surprised it went up so quickly,” said Matthew Marblo, 27, who works in solar development. “She just got elected. She hasn’t exactly done much yet and she is already on a mural. She is more a symbolic figure right now.”…

One woman stopped to snap a selfie in front of the art, which she thought was of pop singer Gloria Estefan.

Gloria Estefan? C’mon. It’s a good likeness of Ocasio-Cortez, at least:

Ocasio-Cortez's face painted onto Lower East Side fence https://t.co/6MbtxEoUNY pic.twitter.com/Ftgd6BJgt8

— New York Post (@nypost) February 13, 2019

Maybe that woman thought it was Gloria Estefan because she naturally assumed it was a portrait of someone who’d accomplished something.

Other bystanders weren’t as admiring:

Fabian from New Jersey told Gothamist that, “She hasn’t really done anything yet” to warrant her own mural. One woman speeding by shouted, “AOC!” with a raised fist. Another person named Bridget said she absolutely deserved the mural because “she’s a wonderful local hero!” Even Ted from the Lower East Side had to agree: “Yeah, that’s AOC. She’s probably the stupidest person in Congress, so I don’t know whether she deserves a mural but people should know who she is.”

Alternate headline: “Lone right-winger found living in Manhattan.”

I think Gothamist’s read on this is correct, that the most noteworthy thing about the mural is how many passersby seem to have known who it was despite the fact that Ocasio-Cortez has been a congresswoman for all of 41 days. The image isn’t even located in her own district, such is her stardom. It’s on the Lower East Side; she represents parts of Queens and the Bronx. Leftists are going to be begging her to primary Chuck Schumer or Andrew Cuomo in 2022 and she might do it. Why shouldn’t she? She’s probably already better known than either of them.