“We didn’t think it would blow up to be this big, but it was kind of a way for us to express a pretty unique view,” Riddle said in an interview with The Dartmouth. “We kind of wanted to spread the love that’s behind the conservative movement.”

The video was meant to start a dialogue about politics, Riddle said, not to offend any groupAt one point in song, the lyrics state, “Don’t matter if you’re gay, straight, Christian, Muslim / There’s one thing we all hate, it’s called socialism.”

“I just hope that people understand that in no way are we trying to hate on anybody,” Riddle said.

The online response to the video, which currently has a 1.5 out of five rating on YouTube, has varied. One commenter on the conservative blog Hot Air expressed approval for “the message, the messengers and the media.”

“There’s been death threats — waking up to a video of a guy with a skull, that’s not really what we were looking for,” he said referring to YouTube user NikolaiRaged’s video respons