Promoting free speech would be efficacious as a tool to stop such people if it had any "staying power" to linger on as a defense-in-depth tool to fight them aft

Promoting free speech would be efficacious as a tool to stop such people if it had any "staying power" to linger on as a defense-in-depth tool to fight them after they assume power - that it would take a while for them to get rid of it. Unfortunately, I believe it could get shut down almost immediately. The trick is simply keeping people like that out of power.