You’ll forgive us if we seem jaded in advance of this weekend’s Democratic and Republican caucuses.

According to the Associated Press, Maine “typically has had little influence in the presidential primary because of its small population and late position in the primary calendar.”

In other words, we’re a bit of an afterthought.

When Maine Democrats caucus this weekend, they’ll choose between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. For what it’s worth, we predict Clinton will do well but Sanders will do better. Sanders has a genuine grassroots campaign that speaks to reformed Green Party members, the academic elite and folks who still can’t accept that if the American Dream of prosperity and homeownership for all is — if not dead — certainly on life support.

Republicans will choose from Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and John Kasich.

We think most will cast their lot in with Trump. We base this forecast on the fact that Mainers have a bit of history with placing a brash, bullying, divisive, businessman in executive office.

Speaking of which, Gov. Paul LePage’s endorsement of Trump comes as a surprise to nobody since Christie — who campaigned in Maine multiple times on LePage’s behalf — dropped out. “I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular,” LePage was recently quoted as saying, as if that’s something to aspire to.

The thought of President Trump is enough to keep you up at night. With the exception of Ben Carson (whose campaign is now neutered), any other Republican candidate is better qualified as president. But for Kasich, not one of them has across-the-aisle appeal. And Kasich’s chances of winning the nomination seem insurmountable.

Speaking of cross-party attraction, it’s as if the Democrats went out of their way to find the two candidates with zero appeal to conservatives.

Since the end of the Reagan/Bush era and the rise of Newt Gingrich the call to action appears to be “Let’s entrench ourselves in fringe beliefs, and when we get to Washington, we’ll get nothing done. As usual.”

Oh well. It’s just as well that we drop the pretense of unity, anyway. In 2000, George W. Bush ran on a platform of “compassionate conservative,” and declared himself “a uniter, not a divider,” but veered sharply right after the election.

And Barack Obama was never able to deliver on his 2008 promise of a more united country — we’re more divided than ever.

More recently, Trump has promised to be a “unifier,” apparently in that he believes he can unify his fellow Republicans against Clinton, who is looking more and more like the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Among Trump’s many failings is his inability to see that it’s not enough to be against a candidate, against a minority group, against a religion. If you’re a true leader, you actually have to stand for something — and that something has to be greater than yourself.