AUBURN — When he was a younger man, Paul Fournier journeyed to California and back with just two loaves of bread, a jar of peanut butter and $60 in his pocket. Don’t tell the 77-year-old Mechanic Falls man that a lot can’t be done with a little.

It was an important concept to keep in mind Friday night as only two people showed up for a Green Party caucus.

Attendance might have been disappointing, but it didn’t diminish the intensity of the discourse. Fournier and fellow Green Independent George Hamilton spent more than an hour discussing the sad state of affairs on the presidential campaign trail.

“We’ve got one candidate who’s probably going to prison. The other is a con artist,” Fournier said. “We live in a country with more than 300 million people and this is the best we can come up with? I really feel that this is a good year for the Green Party to do something.”

The problem is that the Green Party has no real standout candidate. At the Friday caucus, Hamilton, representing Auburn, nominated Jill Stein, a Massachusetts physician who won the nomination in 2012 and who garnered nearly half a million votes in the general election.

Fournier, unfamiliar with Stein or the other Green Party candidates, wrote himself in as the presidential nominee.

“I dream that we could have a Green Party president one day,” Fournier said. “I say, why not? It can happen if you have a little faith.”

Five candidates, not counting the write-in, are seeking the Green Party nomination for president.

Held at Auburn Hall, the gathering was officially the Maine Green Independent Party’s Auburn Municipal Caucus. Because Fournier showed up, the Mechanic Falls caucus also convened. In the absence of a strong turnout, Fournier and Hamilton spent a vigorous hour discussing the issues of the day.

Such as Bernie Sanders, a candidate many thought would be embraced by the Green Party.

“We tried to embrace him,” Hamilton said. “And I’ve tried to contact him several times about embracing our campaigns. He didn’t respond at all.”

As it turns out, Sanders isn’t such a great fit for the Green Party. His socialist platform doesn’t fit.

“Going with Sanders just isn’t possible. We can’t afford that,” Fournier said. “I’d love for everybody to go to college for free, but how are we going to pay for that?”

“Socialism is all caught up in the military machine and the power of the state,” Hamilton said. “Greens and Libertarians tend to favor more municipally powered government.

“There is a strong conservative side to the Green Party,” Hamilton said, “that most people don’t recognize.”

Conversely, said Hamilton, Stein has promised to push for an audit of the Federal Reserve — an idea pushed by Libertarian Rand Paul when he was still in the race — and she’s not afraid to accuse Israel of war crimes. In the past, the Green Party has called for a boycott of Israel and generally disagrees with the policies of both Democratic and Republican candidates.

“The Green Party right now actually has the strongest foreign policy of any of them,” Hamilton said.

Then there’s the federal deficit, which Fournier sees as one of the most pressing concerns.

“That’s going to kill us if we don’t fix it,” Fournier said. “There are a lot of people with money out there who want to help the cause.”

With an estimated 40,000 voters, the Green Party will hold caucuses in nearly 50 Maine communities, opting to convene at various times and locations for the convenience of their members.

The Green Party, Hamilton said, is a party “that hasn’t already been bought out.” Whether there is enough dissatisfaction with the major parties for the Greens to make a go of things remains to be seen.

As for Fournier, while he dreams of seeing the Green Party in the White House someday, he doesn’t really want the job for himself, in spite of the write-in.

“Who would want that job?” he said. “It’s a 24/7 kind of thing. Everything that goes wrong gets blamed on you. It’s got to be a monster headache.”

The Green Party’s Ten Key Values

* Ecological Wisdom/Global Awareness

* Grassroots Democracy

* Social and Economic Justice

* Nonviolence

* Decentralization

* Community Based Economics

* Feminism and Gender Equity

* Respect for Diversity

* Personal and Social Responsibility

* Future Focus and Sustainability

Find out more at mainegreens.org