The comical publication the Onion ran a special volume, Homeland Insecurity, with the headline, “Run for Your Lives.” I thought of that in the wake of the decision by hard-liners Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka to voluntarily leave the White House rather than continue to fight for rational pro-American policies in the Trump Administration against what has been called the Deep State.

In their cases, Trump didn’t have to say “you’re fired.” They quit.

Sadly, Trump, the elected president, may be the next to go.

Bannon quit and went on the CBS “60 Minutes” show, where he vented on a variety of issues, ranging from Trump’s decision to fire FBI director James Comey to the Catholic Church’s pandering to illegal aliens. Sebastian Gorka quit and has now appeared on a special Judicial Watch on-line presentation on the “Deep State,” where he basically waved the white flag of surrender in the face of opposition to him and his appointments.

Bannon and Gorka apparently lost a turf war to Egyptian-American Dina Powell, an Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy. Powell has her detractors, having been labeled a “Swamp Creature” by the Center for Security Policy and linked to Obama’s adviser Valerie Jarrett and Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

The Deep State, whatever that is, won. These were big scalps. Bannon was Assistant to the President and Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor while Gorka was Deputy Assistant to the President and Strategist.

Gorka wrote a letter of resignation publicized by Bannon’s Breitbart News. But he has gone further in his criticism. As reported by The Daily Caller, Gorka said on the Judicial Watch presentation that three of his picks for working under him at the White House were blocked by an “unnamed sister agency.” But he didn’t name this agency. The publication said that Gorka fingered “bureaucrats” as believing that “they can ignore orders from the White House, as illustrated by the drastic increase in national security leaks under the Trump administration.” But those bureaucrats were not named.

This is a problem for Trump supporters. Gorka leaves the White House, supposedly to be able to speak freely about the Deep State, and he still won’t name names. Is he scared? Do they have blackmail material? What’s going on when “Democracy dies in darkness,” as the Washington Post motto proclaims?

What we know is that the Deep State is apparently so deep that those who saw it up close, Bannon and Gorka, didn’t want to stay and fight it. The Deep State must be something like “IT” from the Stephen King novel and the movie. What happened? Are they telling us that the Deep State is so deep that it can force people out of the White House? If so, why would they stop with Bannon and Gorka? Has democracy died in darkness?

Sensing his days are numbered, Trump is demonstrating that he is more of a lover than a fighter.

“He likes us!” is what Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer (NY) said about his cordial meeting with President Trump. The mutual admiration society was a shocker to those who thought Trump was going to fight and prevail against his political enemies.

However, those who thought Trump was a fighter have been very disappointed. Consider:

• He has deferred to the courts on the matter of his constitutional and legal authority to control immigration, legal and illegal.
• He is flip-flopping on the matter of legal status or amnesty for the illegal aliens known as dreamers and the timing for construction of a border wall.
• He has not done anything to shoot down North Korean missiles directed at America or its allies, despite his tough talk and posturing.
• He condemns the Russia-gate Special Counsel investigation as a witch hunt, but has not fired the witch hunter.
• He said he wanted to drain the swamp, but his Justice Department won’t investigate the IRS for its targeting of Tea Party groups.
• He said he would revoke Obama’s Iran deal for nuclear weapons but hasn’t done so.
• He said he would break up the Big Media high tech companies, but has failed to do so.

Bannon and Gorka decided to voluntarily leave the Trump White House rather than fight for their beliefs. Other Trump staffers have been maneuvered into forced resignations or purged outright.

One of them is Trump’s original National Security Adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, who was under surveillance by outgoing Obama officials. Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was known for his criticism of President Obama for failing to identify radical Islamists as the enemy. Flynn was also openly critical of Obama Administration support for Jihadists in Syria, a policy that got as many as 400,000 people killed when Russia intervened militarily with no adequate U.S. response.

Since Flynn’s departure under pressure from Deep State leaks, Trump has toed the line, giving remarks on the anniversary of 9/11 that, like Obama, failed to name the enemy. He talks tough about North Korea and Iran but does nothing.

Perhaps Flynn’s security clearance forms were not properly filled out. Perhaps he didn’t disclose all of the details of his private conversations with others. But that’s less important than the illegal surveillance that got him into trouble and was leaked to the Washington Post. These are the leaks Gorka is talking about. But rather than fight the battle from the inside, Gorka abandoned ship and now does Internet TV shows.

Flynn was forced out because he had dared to name America’s enemies and he wanted to purge the Obama holdovers and other corrupt officials. He is the co-author of an excellent book identifying America’s enemies as Russia, China and radical Islam, in addition to North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua. The book is titled, The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies.

When Trump’s own people are running out the door, you know we are in “deep” trouble. “Run for your lives” seems to be the new foreign policy strategy of the Trump Administration.

So why keep up the pretense that Trump is in any real sense the president?

It looks like the Deep State works for America’s enemies. But who has the courage to expose the traitors in our midst?

In going to the United Nations on Tuesday, Trump has to show his guts by telling the U.N. that its handling of North Korea is only the latest example of its ineffectiveness.

Protecting America’s sovereignty, which Trump campaigned on, means a total and complete withdrawal from the U.N. It’s time to pull out from “The House that Hiss Built,” referring to Soviet spy and State Department employee Alger Hiss. Then, expose the traitors in the Deep State.

The sooner the better. Democracy dies in darkness and hangs in the balance.