UC and free speech: a victory for democracy?

Last night, after I wrote my brief post about the UC Regents decision regarding free speech and anti-Zionism, I thought about the matter. I felt that we should not be really celebrating the decision as a victory for free speech.  It should be seen as a regression of democracy.  The matter should not have come to that in the first place.  We should not celebrate the basic and axiomatic right to criticize a foreign government and an ideology.  The harm to democracy has already been done by deliberating the matter.  This was a setback for democracy regardless of the outcome.