Neither liberals or conservatives are necessarily "open".
However, liberals tend to be more open than conservatives.
Rural people are conservative. They don't like big cities where they have to deal with "unpredictable" strangers. Rural people are quite hospitable toward people they know but treat outsiders with suspicion.
A welfare state is a necessity for a nation where the majority of people live in large cities.
If you lose your job in a city you lose everything if there isn't the support of government welfare.
You can't camp out in a city.
If you chip away at the social welfare net you will produce a nation that is plagued by beggars with tin cups.
Worse yet you will have to take care of them in prisons.
The tipping point toward liberalism/socialism was when people left the farms and moved to the cities.
The longterm trend is toward liberalism. As cities grow larger the wilderness will become MadMax.
Our biggest problem in this world are with people who live in the wide open wilderness ie. the Taliban. Russia has the same problem.
The country side is conservative, suspicious, nationalistic. The Big cities Moscow, St.Petersburg would like to be part of the Western world of the US and Europe.
The problem in the US is the veto power of senators and congressman that represent primarily rural districts.