title: how do i go from an _ast.Dict to an actual dict?
body: <p>i have an ast object that returns type '_ast.Dict'</p>
  
  <p>how do i convert that into a regular dict? </p>
  
  <p>my failed attempts -</p>
  
  <pre><code>type(item.value) -&gt; &lt;type '_ast.Dict'&gt;
  
  eval(item.value) -&gt; *** TypeError: eval: argument 1 must be string or code object
  
  ast.parse(item.value,mode="eval") -&gt; *** TypeError: expected a readable buffer object
  
  dict(item.value) -&gt; *** TypeError: '_ast.astlist' object is not callable
  
  len(item.value) -&gt; *** TypeError: object of type '_ast.Dict' has no len()
  </code></pre>