Mark Z. Barabak: Trump and his enablers want to blow up the presidential debates. They shouldn't get away with it

Of all political rituals, few are as tiresome and threadbare as the debate over debates.

Come election time a candidate and his or her proxies will go round after round with the opposing side, bickering, jockeying and harrumphing over how and whether the political rivals will share a stage and answer questions aimed at prying contestants from their habitual talking points.

It can last for months, in a truly wretched form of Kabuki theater.

Thankfully, for the last several decades the country has been spared the pointless chest-puffing in contests, has deftly overseen the process, presenting candidates with essentially a take-it-or-leave-it invite to appear before what is invariably the largest TV audience of the campaign —