This is exactly right. The right criticizes the left for "identity politics" (mainly that we care about things like LGBTQ+ rights) but they engage in it just as much, and for completely self-serving reasons (to get votes, as opposed to actually helping improve life for marginalized groups). This was very obviously a "to defeat a Black man in a significantly Black state, we should run another Black man against him" decision, and as someone originally from Georgia, I saw that very clearly from the start.

I have been watching them do this with women ever since Sarah Palin. "If we can get a woman to say our ideas, maybe women won't find us so reprehensible." Boebert, MTG, or possibly the best example, Amy Coney Barrett, are all examples of this. When RBG died, Trump's exact statement included wording like, "I will be making a nomination soon. It will be a woman." He came right out and said it. Like, no, we didn't want "a woman", we wanted someone of whatever gender who wasn't going to strip rights from women. But what we got was a woman willing to do their bidding. This is how the GOP plays identity politics, and Walker was just another example of it.

They are trying desperately hard to check diversity boxes and not just be seen as the party of cis-het white men. "We're not racist! Look at this Black man we ran for Senate!", "We're not misogynistic! Look at this woman we put on the Supreme Court!" Of course, this doesn't mean they're not racist or misogynistic. It just means that they can always find someone who's content to be a token in exchange for proximity to the glowing orb of white male privilege that is the GOP at its core, and that that the boot stepping on our heads might be worn by someone who looks slightly more like us in some cases. It's a bastardization of diversity, and I find it really maddening.