And still, the reaction poured in. People flooded social media with messages that weren’t about party or platform, but about gratitude, empathy, and memory. Hashtags like #ThankYouHillary and #WeStandWithHillary appeared alongside personal stories: women describing how watching her persist made them persist; young leaders recalling a book or a speech that planted something in them; older supporters talking about the long arc of her public work and how it intersected with their own lives.
Even the nature of the support said something. It wasn’t celebratory. It was protective. It had the tone of people acknowledging that whatever the private situation was, it deserved care rather than consumption.