Authoritarian populism sustains majoritarian assent despite deep economic crises and rising public dissent in the polls. The literature on explaining how global authoritarianism ascended in the last two decades segued to explore how these regimes are prolonged. Existing works on the lifetime of authoritarian regimes seldom cover the non-institutional and unorganized dynamics that keep them in power. As the popularity of authoritarian regimes grows and they endure longer than expected, scholars are looking to detect the subtle forms and effects that facilitate their reign. This paper examines the role of clashing attitudes toward democracy and the redistribution of symbolic capital in the life and death of authoritarian populist regimes. Drawing from 96 in-depth interviews and a year-long urban bus ethnography in Turkey, this article shows that deepening polarization under authoritarian populism nurtures hybrid meaning-making regarding democracy. Ordinary people discern the meaning of democracy that the official state ideology disseminated from their ideas for democracy that have been molded under the current regime’s ambiguous and unpredictable (un)democratic praxis. Clashing meanings people attach to democracy converge on accepting moderation as better democratic practice. Access to people’s meaning-making shows that populism affectively empowers people by elevating their perceived citizenship status and providing the regime loyalists with symbolic capital. In addition to macro-level structural and economic factors, effective leadership, and social policies, the changing dynamics of everyday life and interaction order can also contribute to prolonged authoritarianism.